Pune: The Khadak police on Tuesday registered a case against a borewell contractor and a homeowner for drilling a borewell above an underground metro line near Shivaji Road on March 14.The drilling reportedly damaged the metro structure near Mandai Metro station. The Pune Metro has been operating an underground corridor between Shivajinagar and Swargate.According to Khadak police, the drilling of a borewell created a hole, approximately six inches in diameter, in the Metro tunnel about 80 to 100 feet below the ground surface.Senior inspector Shashikant Chavan of Khadak police told TOI, “Metro official lodged a complaint with the police. They have sealed the borewell opening both at the ground level and at the roof of the metro tunnel. This poses a risk to the metro line.”Shantanu Gorata, a Maha Metro officer, lodged the complaint on Monday under Sections 125 (rash or negligent acts endangering human life or personal safety) and 324 (mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).Police said the homeowner and the contractor were aware that there was a Metro line beneath the land. They, however, proceeded with the drilling and damaged the tunnel roof, which in turn compromised the safety of the structure.Chandrashekhar Tambhavekar, head of the public relations department of Maha Metro, said, “We were notifying the groundwater survey agency and the civic administration to take precautions while digging borewells along Metro tunnel alignments. Maha Metro has also been issuing a public advisory to alert citizens. Areas along the tunnel alignments would be marked, and coordinated steps would be taken with the civic administration and groundwater agencies.“Meanwhile, Dhananjay Mote, the homeowner and a transport businessman, denied any wrongdoing. He told TOI, “It was an old family wada which we demolished due to its weak condition. We are now constructing a new structure. There was an old hand pump on the premises. We removed it and used a drilling machine to flush the old pipe. We found water at a depth of about 24 feet. We did not drill deeper and were unaware how the drilling could have hit the metro tunnel roof.“He added, “The next day, metro officials visited the site and filled the old hand pump pipe. Without further discussion, they lodged a criminal case against us. We are not criminals. The authorities should have discussed the matter with us, but no one listened to our grievance.”
