Malabar Hill hsg soc shaken up by blasting in an adjoining site

Mumbai: Controlled blasting in a site adjoining Las Palmas, in Malabar Hill, has jolted its residents who have expressed concern over the structural stability of their 60-year-old building.

The plot which once housed a bungalow belongs to Reliance Industries, where a tower has been planned. Malabar Hill police have said all requisite permissions for the controlled blasting are in place.

Incidentally, the site is under the safety scanner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s coastal road department which has asked the building proposal department to review the plan, as it is being constructed over a tunnel of the coastal road. This was reported by HT on December 5. Another under-construction high-rise next to it is also being reviewed. The concern was sparked after the tunnel collapse at Silkyara in which 41 miners were trapped for 17 days.

On Friday, one of the office bearers of Las Palmas’s cooperative society said, “We can feel the tremors on the ground floor and hear the noise. There are mainly senior citizens residing in the building, which is very old. Four years ago, the entire road from Hanging Gardens to Kemps Corner had collapsed. We don’t want a similar situation again.”

The society has written to the local police, the blasting agency, Raigad Enterprises, and project managers of Reliance Industries and Petroleum and Explosive Safety Organisation (PESO), which is the nodal agency for regulating safety of hazardous substances such as explosives, petroleum and compressed gas, on Thursday and Friday stating their objection and requesting that the blasting be stopped.

In October, the housing society had received a request for an NOC by the project manager of Reliance Industries for a one-time controlled trial blast, which they turned down, over concerns for the building’s structural stability.Members of the society added they were willing to review their position if the neighbouring buildings accepted the move.

“On Thursday, we received a letter from Raigad Enterprises which stated that they have the NOC for conducting tests between December 14 and 22 from PESO and the commissioner of police, Mumbai,” said a resident.

Senior police inspector, Uday Singh Shingade, from the Malabar Hill Police Station concurred with the letter and told HT, “Only controlled blasting was taking place for which all permissions were sought.”

An official from Raigad Enterprises, which deals with explosives and building material supplies, said that they did not need an NOC from the housing societies. An official from IR Enterprises, that is carrying out the excavations, spoke in a similar vein. “Reliance has taken all permissions as needed – from the police and central government. Teams from the central government and the National Institute of Rock Mechanics (NIRM) are also present at the site. The work is being carried out adhering to central government guidelines. It is safe. Residents have nothing to worry about.”

The coastal road department said it was not concerned with the controlled blasting taking place on site.