Khadki residents suffocate as cement kicks up dust

Scores of residents like Gopalakrishnan are forced to live a ‘closed-door’ life owing to truckloads of cement being loaded and unloaded at the goods shed adjoining the railway station. The goods shed that was till five years ago primarily a location to unload defence equipment coming into Pune has now turned into a warehouse for cement bags.

“Till about 2003-04,the goods shed was used only to unload defence equipment. But over the last few years,cement has become the only item that is handled here. The cement dust has become a major health hazard. A couple of years back,we took up the matter with the railway authorities; they wrote back asking why the builders had not sought NoCs from them before the residential towers were erected,” Gopalakrishnan said.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) had surveyed the area in 2007 and given in writing that the air quality in the area had gone down due to the cement dust flying around.

“Because of this non-stop loading and unloading activity,the residents have been facing various health hazards like respiratory illnesses. Even trees,walls,vehicles get covered with the heavy cement coat,” said Kakkudiyil Varughese,a resident of Aundh Road.

There are number of residential complexes as well as individual houses on the outskirts of the erstwhile Kirkee Cantonment but on the border of the Pune Municipal Corporation limits. There is St Thomas Church just across the road and a primary school by the same name in the vicinity,where around 800 small children come everyday for studies.

The railway authorities said the cement loading and unloading has been going on for long,much before the residential complexes came up.

“Khadki railway station was up and running much before the residential complexes came up. The cement loading/ unloading activity too has been going on for years. So no question of relocating. Cement is unloaded here for further transportation to different parts of the city,” spokesperson of the Central Railway of the Pune Division,Y K Singh,said.

“It’s a goods shed,loading and unloading of cement has been happening since the beginning. It is the residential complexes that came up in a big way recently,” said Venkatesh Rajulu,manager,container terminal at CONCOR,Chinchwad. But he conceded that the volume of cement unloading and loading at Khadki may have increased. “The volume may have gone up. The residents around the Pune goods shed at Maldhakka may have complained which could have prompted the railways to shift here,” he said.