Not only the noise has made life hell for them, it has caused shooting up of blood pressure levels of the elderly residents, local residents complain.

Vandana Modi, a resident in block E, made several representations to Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA), Fire Brigade, Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and HPCL but to no avail.

Modi says that because of the constant noise, her 74-year-old ailing father is compelled to remain confined to inner rooms and cannot come to the bedroom, which is in close proximity to the CNG station. Her brother Alkeshbhai says the noise must be reduced anyhow, say, by covering the heat exchanger, if it cannot be moved away.

“To add insult to injury, all the air-conditioners installed in a coffee shop on the petrol pump premises are facing the balconies of the flats, throwing noise and hot air all the time,” complains Sadhnaben Visavadia, a neighbour of the Modis.

Letters to Minister of State for Home Amit Shah yielded no result except that in June 2006 he asked AUDA to look into the matter, to no avail, she said. But AUDA in a letter to Modi on March 6, 2007 said that it okayed the CNG station in October 2004 on the basis of permission from GPCB.

Bhailalbhai Kalyanbhai Gohil, 75, had his bypass surgery done in last week of May 2007 and when his relatives came to see him, a strong blast in the CNG station in the backyard scared away all of them.

He himself had tough time keeping his condition normal. He says that the constant noise gives him much trouble.

Vivek Barara, HPCL’s senior regional manager, said that no one had come to him with suggestion to cover it but then explosives authorities at Nagpur would not allow covering it for safety reasons. He said the coffee shop was set up by HPCL under the government policy of restricting oil PSU losses by way of augmenting allied retail business.

Additional chief fire officer M F Dastoor supports view of Barara on covering the heat exchanger. He says that CNG being lighter than air, it has no potential to cause fire or explosion. He said keeping the heat exchanger open was necessary for CNG to escape in open air.