"The buffer zone has helped reduce the vibrations but we are asking the NGRI to conduct another study as vehicular traffic in this area keeps going up," K. Virabhadra Rao, superintendent archaeologist, ASI, told Outlook. On an average, more than 1,000 vehicles pass the monument per hour as compared to almost half that many vehicles five years ago. This not only causes underground vibrations detrimental to the structural safety of the monument, but also creates unsafe levels of both noise and air pollution.
Plaster has already peeled off the pillars, leaving three-and-a-half-inch-deep gashes in them.
