Loud noise at Celkon's worksite day and night shatters serenity in L&T County
Hyderabad: Over 800 residents of the L&T Serene County in Gachibowli have lost sleep, peace, and precious work hours due to the non-stop bouldering and excavation activities of the Celkon company on the nearby land during day and night.
The work on setting up of Celkon director Gurumurthy's R&D office is ongoing since October of 2019. At first, it was a smooth affair, but eventually the workers started loading and unloading construction materials from 10:30pm to about 6 in the morning.
The residents raised several complaints with the Raidurgam police and even wrote to the GHMC, seeking a halt to the works during night time so that their sleep would not be disturbed. “We even went to the site and requested the supervisor to avoid loud noise at night. We were already hit by the Covid-19 restrictions. For a short while, they heeded our request, but then continued with the disturbances,” said Shashi Gupta, a resident. “It is not like we are creating hindrance in their work. We told them they can carry out the work at night too but to a maximum of 10pm or midnight, but they would not listen,” added Shashi.
The residents, along with some members of the All India Professional Congress, are on a peaceful sit-in dharna for the last 56 days and raising the issue via social media to force the company stop the works at night.
Celkon MD Gurumurthy rejected the argument of the residents and said the company had stopped work at night for two months. “We cannot stop work during the day if that’s what they mean. They requested us to stop it through the nights, and which we did so,” he said.
Residents meanwhile provided proof that the work was indeed ongoing late at night too for the past about two weeks.
They said they made several phone calls to the Raidurgam Police Station seeking police help.
“The latest calls we made to police were about two days ago, at night, when the noise got too loud for us to bear with. The cops visited the site, but the problem was not solved. Earlier the work used to start around 10pm. These days, they wait until 1am so that calls to the police might not be made,” said resident Vasanth.
“These people should be penalised for carrying out the work at night close to residential areas. We have written to the GHMC zonal commissioner, but saw no action,” said another resident.
Satish Manne, the AIPC social media convener, made several representations to GHMC officials. "I suspect some illegal work is going on. People are suffering. So many of these residents working as IT professionals have developed severe ailments due to lack of sleep," said Manne. Efforts by Deccan Chronicle to elicit a comment from the GHMC did not succeed.
