Metro leaves Begampur shaken and stirred

Yellow line makes the residents of Begampur village near Malviya Nagar jittery. Cracks have appeared in nearly 50 houses which have been giving nightmares to the occupants.

If you have a house near the Metro track, it means putting up with a deep, annoying rumbling and sudden jerks.

Cracks-have-appeared-in-nearly-50-houses-in-Begampur-village-Sanchit-Khanna-HT-photo

Each trip of the Metro train along the Yellow line makes the residents of Begampur village near Malviya Nagar jittery. They are compelled to live under constant fear as the speeding train stimulates vibrations in structures located in the area. These frequent shakes are resulting into severe physiological disturbances and property damage as well.

Cracks have appeared in nearly 50 houses which have been giving nightmares to the occupants. “Cracks, both minor and large, have appeared in around 50 houses in our locality,” said Sanjay Gulaiya, a resident of the area adding that vibrations can be felt at higher floors of the buildings.

Raghuvir Chaudhary, another resident, said the problem has been there since the beginning when the Delhi Metro first started the tunnelling work in 2008. The residents of the locality had met the Metro officials in this regard, but a solution is yet to be found. Following their complaints, a team of Delhi Metro inspected the area. However, the team claimed these crack as hairline. The report also claimed that the splits do not have any impact on the structural integrity of the building. “A team sent by the DMRC did some repair work like cementing the cracks. But it was not done properly, as a reason the houses started developing the same problem again,” he said.

Residents said the problem aggravated when Delhi Metro started six coach train in the month of December in 2010 and it got further escalated from year 2013 after eight coach trains were introduced. It was after this that more and more houses started developing cracks, said residents. Anuj Dayal , executive director, corporate communications, DMRC, said that after an analysis of the whole village, all possible corrective measures were taken. “Today, the operation of Delhi metro is such that there is no danger to these buildings.

Therefore, all the buildings are safe. Also, all buildings can tolerate a certain level of vibrations,” he said.
Chaudhary along with RD Sharma, a resident of the village, and Sanjay Gulaiya recently met the current managing director of Delhi Metro, Mangu Singh, around two months back to register their grievances.

“Mangu Singh gave some technical reasons, but we don’t want to get into the technicalities and want a solution to the problem. For an old man, even the ticking of a clock sometimes disturbs the sleep, imagine how much do they have to face due to the vibration. The last train runs around 11 in the night, but they run some test trains even at around 3am which disturbs the sleep of people in the village,” said Chaudhary. In the absence of any relief from the authority, the villagers are now mulling to move High Court with their plea.