Mumbai: BMC brings back wave-breakers on Marine Drive

Tetrapods are being installed along the sea walls at Marine Drive after complaints from residents. Pic/Ashish Raje

The civic body has started putting tetrapods, which were removed for the Coastal Road project, back in its place in Marine Drive after residents complained of ‘tremors' caused by huge waves during high tides, officials said on Monday.

The Nariman Point Churchgate Citizens Welfare Trust or NPCCA on Saturday raised the matter in a letter to the BMC. It stated that several residents of Shree Niketan and Gobind Mahal societies, sea-facing buildings between G and F Roads, have been noticing vibrations in the structures that "feel like tremors".

The residents never faced this before, and the only difference this year was the absent tetrapods, the letter added. They urged the civic body to immediately investigate and rectify, as the continuous shaking over extended periods could cause severe damage to the structural integrity of the buildings.

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The BMC responded on Monday stating that the work to reinstate the tetrapods has already begun. "High tide and the speed of gusty wind may be the reason behind the feeling," said a civic official.

"A team of contractor's representatives, project management consultants and BMC staff visited the site. The readings of the vibration monitoring instruments during high tide on Sunday and Monday were observed to be normal," said the official.

However, to allay the fears of the residents, the BMC asked the contractor to put the tetrapods back in place.

Meanwhile, "our team would also connect with the managing committee members/residents of the buildings concerned (Shree Niketan and Gobind Mahal) to better understand their observations so as to correlate them to other data to draw inferences", the official added.

BMC Additional Commissioner Ashwini Bhide said, "The tetrapods are being put back so as to assuage any concerns. They are being installed during low tides and the work will take two to three days. The tetrapods were temporarily removed from near the stormwater drains' outlets to provide sheet piles, a few months ago."

She added, "There are four lines of secant piles that are embedded 15-metre deep into the ground to thwart any impact of external force of waves. Still, this [the complaints] will be checked with the experts and necessary steps will be taken."

2-3
Days it would take to finish tetrapod work