The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) was on Tuesday forced to intervene and tell officials at a construction site in Ballygunge’s Sunny Park that they were violating guidelines for under-construction buildings and not taking measures to curb dust and noise pollution.
Residents of Sunny Park had complained to a senior official of the KMC that dust rising from the site and the fumes of diesel-powered machines had made their lives miserable. The complaint triggered an inspection by KMC engineers.
The KMC has issued guidelines asking owners and developers of under-construction buildings to cover the site, keep noise levels within 65 decibel and curb dust suspension by watering the soil or limiting the speed of vehicles at construction sites. The guidelines are rarely followed.
The Sunny Park incident is not an exception. Across the city, there are scores of construction sites where similar violations continue right under the nose of the KMC.
The incident highlights how construction work goes ahead in the city in violation of rules and how the civic body fails to act until it is too late.
The Telegrahp visited the Sunny Park site on Tuesday afternoon. The road leading to the site was smeared with chunks of soil. Several residents of an apartment building opposite the construction site said they had to keep their windows closed to prevent their rooms from being filled with fumes from diesel machines at the site.
Dust rising from the site, spread across 72 cottahs, fill the houses in the immediate vicinity, alleged the residents.
Sources in the KMC said the Rashmi group, which has interests in iron and steel products, is building a G+9 storey building there. “It is a single tenement residential building. The plot size is about 72 cottahs and the building will be over 50 metres in height,” said a KMC official.
Following complaints from residents, a team of engineers from the KMC’s Borough VIII went to the site on Tuesday. “We have asked them to take necessary measures to curb the pollution,” said a KMC official.
A senior KMC official said the civic body has the powers to act against under- construction sites that continue to pollute the environment despite warnings. “We can even issue a stop-work notice to a site that does not adhere to guidelines even after we caution them,” said the official.
An official of the Rashmi group told this newspaper on Tuesday evening that they have started taking precautionary measures.
“We have started watering the site to prevent dust suspension. We will also erect a 10ft-tall covering around the site soon, though we are still working on the soil,” the official said.
Rita Bhimani, a resident of Sunny Park, said the dust from the site is a health hazard for senior citizens like her.
“So many elderly people live here. The dust keeps spreading across the area through the day. The fumes from diesel-powered machines fill our rooms,” said Bhimani.
Artist Swaroop Mukerji, another resident of Sunny Park, echoed Bhimani. “The sound of the construction activities is sometimes unbearable. We have to keep our windows closed to stop dust and diesel fumes from entering our rooms,” said Mukerji.
The state municipal affairs department recently told all municipalities and municipal corporations that the promoters of many under-construction buildings are not taking the measures that are necessary during the construction phase.
The memorandum from the department said “a large number of buildings are being constructed within various Municipalities and Municipal Corporations without taking any precautionary measures by the concerned builder/developer/owner(s) during construction works causing noise, water and dust pollution”.
The caution comes in the wake of the collapse of an under-construction building in Garden Reach that killed 13 people.
Earlier this month, a 53-year-old woman died after a set of bricks collapsed from the parapet of an under-construction building in Birati, North 24-Parganas. Officials of North Dum Dum Municipality said the structure did not have any safety net around it.
