‘Metro causing vibrations, noise’: HC junks plea by Saket residents seeking damages

A bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad, in an order dated December 15, 2022, noted a report from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) and said that it is “very clear that the vibrations are found to be within the permissible limits and the noise pollution was also within the permissible limits”

New Delhi The Delhi high court has rejected a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by several residents of south Delhi’s Saket area, seeking remedial measures as well as compensation from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for causing noise pollution and vibrations due to the running of trains on the nearby underground Yellow Line.

The Delhi high court. (HT File)

A bench of chief justice Satish Chandra Sharma and justice Subramonium Prasad, in an order dated December 15, 2022, noted a report from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT-D) and said that it is “very clear that the vibrations are found to be within the permissible limits and the noise pollution was also within the permissible limits”.

IIT-D had been asked to look into the issue and file a report after the petitioners had moved the high court in April 2014, seeking the appointment of an independent team/agency of experts and consultants to examine the issue afresh, and to provide and suggest remedial measures.

While disposing of the plea, the court said section 43 of the Metro Railways (Operation and Maintenance) Act, 2002 provides for payment of compensation in case there is damage to any property on account of Metro work/running of Metros, and therefore, in case there is any damage to the property of the petitioners, they shall certainly be free to move an appropriate application for grant of compensation in accordance with law.

In their report, IIT-D experts said they studied the noise levels at the house of Anantmala Potdar, one of the Saket residents who had moved court. They took sound and vibration measurements, mostly spanning the entire day -- from morning to late at night -- and found that the noise was within the permissible limit. It said that in all, a total of 2,369 datasets of 1-minute duration were recorded (across three different locations in the house) using state-of-the-art sensors and data acquisition system, of which 1,032 sets were processed and vibration/noise metrics were evaluated using validated software developed in-house.

The report said that the recorded sound pressure levels are in the range of 47-70 decibels A (dBA) during the passage of trains, while at other times, the noise levels were 50-60dBA for office and living rooms of the house and 46-49dBA in the bedroom.

“In general, it may be stated that during the event of a train pass-by, the noise levels are not seen to rise appreciably for the two locations in the house (living room and office room) but is found to rise by approximately 10 dBA relative to the recorded ambient levels,” the report had said.

Regarding vibrations, except for very few cases of vertical vibrations, the measured vibration decibels (VdB) values are found to be within the limits in all three directions, the report added.

With 68 underground stations, mostly in south and central Delhi, DMRC has received several complaints about vibrations from the residents of Saket, Hauz Khas, Begumpur, Shahbad Mohammadpur and Sarvpriya Vihar areas, contending that they feel the vibration every time a train passes in the underground tunnel.