Environmental management during metro railway construction especially in highly polluted and densely populated city

摘要

The construction of new metro project or expansion of existing metro systems are being planned in several densely populated and highly polluted cities of the world. The metro systems after construction and commissioning will certainly reduce the pollution level and add convenience to the public, but such project may grossly aggravate the pollution problem during construction stage, especially in respect of noise and air pollution which are generally at their peak in the city just before such projects are taken up for implementation. To compound the problem further, the metro alignment generally passes through densely populated areas and high vehicular traffic zones; thus the construction activity has to be taken up mostly in the vulnerable areas of the city, which are the most densely populated as well as generally having the highest pollution level. Now-a-days the project implementation period is getting further compressed resulting in more in tense activity of construction and much more increase in pollution level in the shorter period of construction. In such situation, large population of city which is already suffering from high pollution level may be further exposed to considerably increased pollution level due to the major construction activity, which may lead to very prolonged adverse affect on the public health in general. The paper deals with all the aspects of minimising the negative environmental affects in planning and implementation of major metro project in a highly polluted city - especially when the pollution level of certain elements of pollution are already above the acceptable level. The paper also throws light on the environmental management system including the planning for the route alignment, structures, material used, method of construction, monitoring and other innovative ideas with a special reference to Delhi Metro which is under implemntation in New Delhi having a population of almost 14 million people and being one of the most polluted cities of the world.