HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELHIMONDAY, APRIL 18, 2016

Noise-high Capital looks for ways to tame decibel demonsBLARING ITO noisiest spot, comparisons of yearly averages show that noise level has exceeded prescribed standardsRitam Halder■ ritam.halder@hindustantimes.com

NEW DELHI: From honking cars tomusic from the neighbourhoodweddings, the decibel demonshave pushed the noise levels inthe Capital to an uncomfortable high, data says.

ITO is the noisiest spot inDelhi, the National AmbientNoise Monitoring Network of theCentral Pollution Control Board recently revealed.

Comparisons of yearly aver-ages across five spots in the cityfrom 2011 to 2014 show that thenoise level at Delhi has exceededprescribed standards at most sta-tions almost always.

The spots which were moni-tored by National AmbientNoise Monitoring Network for four years are Dilshad Garden,Delhi College of Engineering in Rohini, Netaji Subhas Instituteof Technology in Dwarka, ITOand Central Pollution ControlBoard headquarters in East ArjunNagar.

Among these, East ArjunNagar and Dilshad Garden record-ed a massive boom in noise pollu-tion levels in the past few years.

BS Vohra, president ofEast Delhi RWAs Joint Front(Federation), told Hindustan Times that East Arjun Nagar andDilshad Garden were arguablythe noisiest residential areas ofthe Capital.

“Dilshad Garden is next to theUttar Pradesh border and has tobear the heavy load of truckscoming in and going out. EastArjun Nagar, on the other hand,is in close proximity to the AnandVihar interstate bus terminus, Anand Vihar railway station aswell as the Uttar Pradesh bor-der. The Jhilmil industrial area,which is in between the DilshadGarden, East Arjun Nagar andAnand Vihar adds to the noisepollution here,” Vohra said.

Another clogged corner of thecity, Dwarka, too, has emergedas a hotspot for noise pollution.Environmental activist and

Dwarka resident Diwan Singh said that this west Delhi localitywas ‘extremely noisy’.

“Heavy transit traffic fromGurgaon to west Delhi and a large number of construction activitiesalong with insufficient green buff-er zones add to the noise pollution.We need to increase the numberof green areas and regulate traf-fic and construction activities sothat the decibel demons can be tamed,” he said.

The National Green Tribunalhad recently rapped the Delhi gov-

ernment over delay in devisinga strategy for better implemen-tation of pollution control laws, especially those regarding noisepollution. The green court had inthe last week of March directedthe government to convene a meeting in this regard within two weeks. The Delhi government isalso set to revise the noise cap for firecrackers. The current soundlimit for each firecracker is 125decibels, while sound levels of up to 70 decibels is considered safefor humans. ›Heavy transit traffi c from Gurgaon to west Delhi

and a large number of construction activities along with insuffi cient green buffer zones add to the noise pollution levels in Dwarka.DIWAN SINGH, Dwarka resident

■ The National Green Tribunal had recently rapped the Delhi govtover delay in devising a strategy to counter noise pollution.

Source: National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network of the Central Pollution Control Board

Figures in decibels (db) National Safety mark: 55 db

NOISE IN THE CITYNoise level in the city is uncomfortably high, data says

Spots 2011 2012 2013 2014

Dilshad Garden 52 51 50 51

East Arjun Nagar 60 59 60 62

Rohini 51 50 51 51

ITO 72 71 73 74

Dwarka 55 55 55 55