Chaos over cable-laying cacophony

KOLKATA: CESC workers, laying a 12-KV cable from the Prinsep Street receiving station to EM sub station in Nonadanga, have left Shakespeare Sarani in utter chaos.
In clear violation of the decibel limit, the workers are using loudspeakers to co-ordinate among themselves, leaving residents and office workers distressed after a month of what they call "pure torture".
When a TOI team visited Shakespeare Sarani on Friday afternoon, the northern pavement was dug up from its AJC Bose Road connector till Shakespeare Sarani-Hungerford Street crossing.
"While laying pipes, the workers are shouting "Jai Bangla" to inspire each other, making it difficult for us to work. At least we have a closed-door shop. I can't imagine how the shops that are open in the front are managing," said Siddharta Bar, an employee of a courier company.
CESC workers say they need to yell to boost their energy and coordinate with other workers. "The noise acts as an alert and all workers across the 500-metre stretch start pulling as soon as they hear it. Until we all put in our effort, it's very difficult to pull the wire," said Avinash Shaw, a worker.
But their over-enthusiastic shouting, that too on loudspeakers, has made life difficult for residents. Ashmita Sarangi said the noise has forced them to close the windows of their Kundalia Apartment flat. "Apart from the noise, the road is full of dust and it's very difficult to walk," said the second-year student of St Xavier's.
"My wife is a cardiac patient. This kind of noise is very harmful for her health. But our hands are tied," said Santosh Badowa, a local.
The worst hit are businessman. Some shops and restaurants have been shut down due to the CESC work. "The noise is horrible. It has become very hard to survive," said Jibon Saha, a medicine shop owner.
CESC officials said the Rs 40-crore work will help meet the 5% increase in power consumption this summer. "The job is to connect our transmission centre to the heart of the city. It will stabilize power supply in the city," said Dilip Sen, executive director (commercial and distribution) of CESC.
Officials of the contractors' organization, S Chatterjee and Sons, said they are taking utmost care to see that people are not harassed. "We have to cover a distance of 9.2 km to lay the cable," said one of them.