VJTI professor, engineers offer fixes for tremors during Mumbai coastal road works

MUMBAI: Two days after Borivli MLA Sanjay Upadhyay convened a meeting with the BMC commissioner and residents of Charkop over tremors reported during test piling for the Mumbai Coastal Road (North) project, civic officials on Friday conducted on-site monitoring of the affected buildings.The inspection team included civic engineers and Abhay Bhambole, a professor from Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), who assessed vibration levels generated during soil erosion and test pile works. Readings were taken to evaluate the impact of ongoing piling activity on nearby residential structures.During the monitoring exercise, Bhambole suggested a series of corrective measures to engineers from Larsen & Toubro, the project contractor. These included the use of specialised piling tools and deploying support machinery such as JCBs to stabilise piling rigs, with the aim to reduce excessive noise and vibrations.Officials said the readings recorded during the visit indicated minimal to negligible vibrations. Bhambole also assured residents that adequate precautions would be taken during subsequent piling activity to prevent recurrence of tremors or structural impact. The visit also addressed concerns on mangrove loss in Charkop. It was explained that only about 9,000 mangroves—out of a total of approximately 46,000 — will be temporarily trimmed and later replanted at the same location.