Wednesday, Apr 24, 2024 | Last Update : 12:14 AM IST
Society starts Twitter campaign against WR
The society had written several times to Western Railway about the resulting noise and air pollution.
Mumbai: Residents of Akash Horizon Society in Agripada on Wednesday started a Twitter campaign against Western Railway (WR) as the latter had failed to pay heed to their plight as regards to noise and air pollution caused by its generator vans for the past nine years.
Mirza Gayas, secretary of the society, tweeted to the PMO, railway minister and WR about the society’s ordeal at #IndianRailwaysinSlumber. Mr Gayas claimed that 500 members of the society had joined the campaign.
With the society’s compound wall on the west side touching the wall of the WR yard, the society had written several times to the WR about the resulting noise and air pollution.
Mr Gayas told The Asian Age that if for any reason, the WR wanted to continue with the outdated technology of diesel-operated generators, it should install a sound-proof enclosure or shift the shed to a non-residential area so that noise and air pollution did not disturb any person in the society.
“Why cannot the WR use electrical transformers that are economical and environment-friendly?” he questioned. Mr Gayas claimed that the cost of running an electrical transformer would be 24 paise as compared to the `1 cost of running a diesel-operated generator. Mr Gayas said that the authorities were violating human rights by running generators with a noise level of 95 to 115 decibel as compared to the permissible 55 decibels.
Ravinder Bhakar, CPRO of WR, said, “Looking at the issues raised by ‘Akash Horizon Premises Cooperative Society Ltd.’, we have taken some important short-term and long-term measures. Earlier, the north-end generators of these power cars were not being operated for power supply to coach equipment during maintenance. However, for testing the proper working of the north-end generators, these were being made ‘ON’ for 30 minutes. This is essential for proper working of trains. This has resulted in decreasing noise levels.”
Mr Bhakar further informed that as a long-term measure, a 500kVA, 2.2kV/750V small substation and 750V points had been installed and commissioned on December 19, 2017, for provision of 750V 3 phase supply in lieu of DG (diesel generator) sets for testing and maintenance purposes.
