Mumbai, Aug. 9 -- After more than two months of silence at the Rs.1,481-crore Dahisar Transportation Hub site, dynamite blasting is set to resume, but residents living next to the project fear the return of the noise and vibrations that had triggered cracks in their buildings. Municipal commissioner Ashwini Bhide has cleared the work on Friday with additional safeguards recommended after an IIT Bombay assessment, civic officials said. Blasting at the project site stopped on June 2 after HT reported concerns raised by residents and housing societies adjoining the site over persistent noise and vibrations and allegations that cracks had appeared in their buildings and flats. The BMC then commissioned IIT Bombay to assess whether the blasting posed a risk to nearby structures. The assessment, carried out on June 20, found no risk to neighbouring buildings, according to civic officials. Residents, however, questioned the findings and are not convinced that the revised blasting method will eliminate the nuisance. Under the new method, the contractor will reduce the number and intensity of simultaneous blasts. A senior BMC official said around 25 holes had earlier been used at a time, with different bore diameters. The contractor will now use only five holes at a time and reduce the bore diameter. "We will now limit the number of simultaneous blasts to about one-fifth of the previous amount; earlier, we used about 25 holes for dynamite and blasting, but now we will only fill five holes at a time," the official said. But residents said the issue was not simply the blasting technique but whether the new safeguards would actually be followed. "We do not trust the contractor or the monitors they have installed. They have promised to change the blasting method, but who will ensure they are actually following it?" said Mahadev Gondlekar, chairperson of Madhuban Cooperative Housing Society in Dahisar East, who has spearheaded the campaign against dynamite blasting for the hub. Gondlekar said residents had issued a legal notice and could approach the court for a stay within the next two weeks if the nuisance continued. Ketan Mehta, another Madhuban resident, alleged that the blasting method demonstrated during the IIT team's visit was different from the one used earlier. "They have misled IIT. What was demonstrated before IIT was different," he alleged and called the process flawed. "For now MC (municipal commissioner) has allowed us to resume our work, and all efforts will be taken to make sure there is no nuisance caused to residents," a senior BMC official said....