Siddharth college plans to move HC to seek relief from Metro III work

Maske claimed that the 127-year-old college was one of the oldest buildings on D N Road. The college authorities claim vibrations caused by the Metro work are affecting the academic activities. “How can students study in a classroom with intense vibrations? They cannot even hear what the teacher is saying because of the loud noise created during piling,” said Maske.

Raising concerns after the ceiling collapse, the college wrote to the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation on August 26.

“We are concerned that if this problem is not sorted out soon, it may lead to a serious disaster and life of thousands of people will be at stake. We, considering the seriousness of the issue and its dangerous consequences, would like to request you to please send your surveyor immediately and start the required repair and maintenance work as promised by your representative at the time of obtaining NOC from us for your project,” the college said in the letter.

In its response, the MMRC reportedly wrote to the college on August 28 saying the damage/cracks in its building existed even before the Metro construction began in May 2017.

“While obtaining the NOC, they had promised they would compensate us for any damage caused during construction. However, now they even refuse to take responsibility for it. I have not even received the pre-construction building condition survey report. If they cannot guarantee our safety then they should provide us an alternative location to allow our students to continue their academics smoothly,” said Maske.

An MMRC spokesperson, however, said they had sent the building survey report to the law college, “which is in the same building as the commerce college”. “If they want us to send it separately to them, we can do that,” he said.

On the condition of the building, structural engineer Jamshed Sukhadwalla said, “The columns in the basement have bulged and buckled and the flooring on the second floor have separated showing an increase in loading in one part of the building. I noticed the dates on the crack meters were of recent dates showing that monitoring was not being conducted from the time the piling began, as MMRC claimed.”