People power triumphed over
corporate callousness about 10 months ago in Thane. Residents of Tarangan, a
plush society off the Eastern Express Highway, were at their wits’ end when a
mall opened in front of one of their buildings. The 24x7 hum of the 12 huge
cooling towers of the mall left the 350 families of the society fuming. Kalpataru
Builders built the society about 10 years ago and the Korum mall in 2009.
The mall,
possibly the largest in Thane, has four-screen multiplexes and 100 stores. “Things
went beyond our tolerance level when the mall started functioning,” Dr Kritika Doshi,
a resident, said. “Residents of the seven-floor Swati building were the worst
sufferers of the noise pollution from the cooling towers. Also, the continuous honking
of cars coupled with a running generator got on our nerves.”
When repeated
requests to mall authorities did not
yield anything, residents decided to measure the noise level themselves before
approaching the Thane Municipal Corporation
(TMC) or the police. They found that the noise level (70 decibels) was way above
the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB)
prescribed limits of 55 decibels during the day and 45 decibels at night. “We
could hardly talk among ourselves… The noise was so terrible that we had to
shout at each other,” Sanjog Hate, a resident, said. “None of us could sleep
properly.
The elderly
and the kids had to suffer a lot. We kept telling the mall authorities to do
something, but our pleas fell on deaf ears.” Some residents, fed up with the
noise, even decided to sell off their flats and shift to some other place.
Sameer, a Std V student, said, “We had to stop playing in the garden because of
the noise.” When there was no respite, the 28 families staying in Swati
building decided to take matters in their hands. “We wrote to the TMC, the MPCB
and the police complaining against the mall,” Hate said. TMC immediately sent
its officials to record the noise level. It was then that the mall management decided
to come to the talking table.
Corporater
Sanjay Kadam, who is too a resident of Tarangan, said, We invited IIT-B
professor Dhanesh Manik for his opinion. Manik told the mall people to shift
the cooling towers to the top floor and provide the parking area with the Glass
cover.
The mall
authorities finally gave in and started work on shifting the cooling towers and
giving the parking area glass-cover about a year ago. The work got over in
January. Things are back to normal. The only concern left is the generator
room. But as per information the mall people are working on that.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.png)