A resident of Lindsay Street points to a crack in the wall caused by the car park construction work. Picture by Amit Datta

Plying of buses more than 10 years old, felling of trees that are not being replanted, work on the parking lot causing cracks in buildings… Wednesday was a day of stops and curbs — at, above and under ground-level.

The construction of the sprawling underground car park at Lindsay Street hit yet another roadblock on Wednesday, when police restricted work to only “five hours a day”. This puts a huge question mark on the completion of the project, already five months behind schedule.

The police on Wednesday issued a directive to the construction firm to work for “one hour from 8 pm” and “four hours from 5 am”. The police action comes in the wake of a joint petition from a few hundred families residing in nearby buildings, plagued by the night-long noise pollution and walls that had “developed cracks”.

Mayor Subrata Mukherjee was far from pleased when word reached him that his pet project had been slowed down, once again: “This is ridiculous. How can construction be completed within the stipulated time if work is restricted to four hours at a stretch? If this is the state government’s view, no development project can be undertaken in the city. I will speak to the chief minister,” he fumed.

Police were clear they had followed their brief. Close on the heels of complaints about cracks developing in various buildings due to the construction work rose voices of protest about the decibel devil.

“Late on Tuesday, the residents complained to us that they could not tolerate the sound of construction any more. We had no option but to ask the authorities to stop work in the night,” said A. Ghosh, officer-in-charge of New Market police station, “The decision was taken considering the age and physical condition of the complainants.”

Trouble broke out around 11 pm when residents of Lindsay Mansion emerged from the building. “It is horrible… The entire building vibrates dangerously. We fear it may collapse any moment,” cried a 75-year-old resident of the apartment block.

Another resident, in her early 80s, described the nightmare: “As long as the work goes on, you can’t hold a plate with a cup on it. Sleeping at night has become impossible. We want to first think of our survival and then about how an underground car park,” she asserted.

“Police have allowed us only an hour at night. That is not even enough for preparation work,” complained B.K. Mundhra of Simplex Projects.