Residents of Cuffe Parade oppose controlled blasting for Metro III line

MMRC officials want to continue carrying out the controlled blasting for Metro III (Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ). Representation pic

Residents of Cuffe Parade are having anything but a blast with the latest inconvenience the Metro III line has created for them: lack of clarity over a controlled blasting exercise on the route. On one stretch of the Colaba-Bandra-SEEPZ Metro, officials are planning on carrying out work for the excavation. On January 5, the Cuffe Parade police station had written a letter to the secretary and manager of the Jupiter Cooperative Housing Society asking for an NOC for the control blasting exercise.

Letter says
The letter, of which mid-day has a copy, states, "The control blasting work will have to be carried out between Captain Prakash Pethe Road and President Junction to Dhanpal Naka, during which all the precautionary measures would be taken. "In order to carry out the control blasting, an NOC is required from the housing societies, and if there was any objection from your side, we had requested you to please submit the same in a written format within seven days of receiving it, but we have not received it yet. We request you to kindly submit your response within four days of receiving this letter."

Where are the permits?
But the letter has some obvious loopholes, as pointed out by Dalamal Park resident Robin Singhania, who said, "While the police have sent us a notice telling us to give an NOC or raise objections, if any, the letter is silent on whether MMRC has received any permission from the chief controller of explosives or whichever authority, or whether they have received permissions under the law."

"MMRC does not tell us anything, and they have even not told us about the kind of explosives they will be using to do the controlled blasting," he added. Despite this, MMRC maintains the process is extremely safe. "Controlled blasting is required for hard rock excavation as it causes much lesser noise than mechanical rock breakers. We would like to highlight that controlled blasting is extremely safe and is being undertaken all over the world for rock breaking in urban conditions. It is already being used on some of our sites in Mumbai," said a spokesperson for MMRC.

How is it done?
According to MMRC's in-house magazine Metro Cube, controlled blasting is "The excavation of soil or rock for station and tunnel construction work, which can be done either by tunnel boring machines or by blasting the unit quantity of rock... Controlled blasting can be carried out only after receiving statutory permissions, scrutiny of safety and security of the premises, permissions from Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) obtained on verification of credentials of the company executing the blasting operations."

Catch up on all the latest Mumbai news, current affairs from Mumbai, local news, crime news and breaking headlines here

Download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go