New Delhi: Delhi may be thedirtiest city in terms of highair pollution but the dubiousdistinction of being the noi-siest city goes to Mumbaiwhich reported the maxi-mum violation of safe noiselevels for consistently longerperiods during 2011-14.
Delhi, in fact, was at num-ber four as Lucknow and Hy-derabad turned out to be noi-sier than the capital whichhas an advantage of relative-ly higher green cover and ro-ad side plantations. Thoughthe most common source ofnoise pollution is motor vehi-cles, the other sources like ge-nerator sets, office machines,aircraft, industrial and const-ruction activities too substan-tially contribute to increasingthe noise level in the cities.
The observation came
from the Central PollutionControl Board (CPCB) whichin its latest report also notedhow the noise pollution (noi-se level beyond the prescri-bed limits of 55 dB during
day and 45 dB during night)can cause aggression, hyper-tension, hearing loss, tinni-tus and sleep disturbance.
“Tinnitus can lead to for-getfulness, severe depres-
ged its conclusion by avera-ging the location-wise day ti-me and night time noise le-vel. The reason behindcoming out with such a data-base is to help policymakersin setting standards and poli-cy formulation for control-ling noise pollution. Such da-ta is also required to ensurecompliance of existing rules.
Though the noise level iscurrently monitored at 35 lo-cations in seven cities, theCPCB plans to set up monito-ring stations at 160 locationsacross 18 states in due course.
At present, the noise levelin Delhi is monitored at ITO,Dilshad Garden, Delhi Colle-ge of Engineering (DCE),NSIT Dwarka and CPCB head-quarters in East Arjun Nagar.
Dilshad Garden, DCE andNSIT monitoring stations inDelhi showed the average noi-se level within the prescribedlimits of 55 dB.The CPCB alsocame out with recommenda-tions to check noise pollution,including creation of vegeta-tion buffer zone, road sideplantations, strict enforce-ment of noise level standardsfor fire-crackers, loud speakerand public address system.
sion and at times panic at-tack,” said the country’s na-tional pollution watchdogthat compiled the real timemonitoring data from 35 loca-tions in seven cities and flag-
Hyd, LucknowNoisier Than
Capital: CPCB
Mumbai noisiest city, Delhi at No. 4CITY OF DIN: LOCATION-WISE RESULTS
CPCBmonitored
ambient noise level at 35 locations in seven
cities (fi ve locations in each city): Delhi,
Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru
and Lucknow
Prescribed standards/limits of noise level (safetymark) 45
dB during night time
CPCB analysed real-time data taken for four years (2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014) and came to the following conclusion:
Maximum violation of prescribed standards were observed in Mumbai followed by Lucknow, Hyderabad, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Bengaluru
LOCATION-WISE(Results of all 35 locations in seven cities in 2014) It means
Mumbai is the noisiest
Bengaluru is the quietest
LOCATION-WISE RESULTS WITHIN A CITY IN 2014
MUMBAI Maharashtra
Pollution Control Board (MPCB)headquarters
Thane
LUCKNOW Hazratganj
Indira Nagar
HYDERABAD Punjagutta
Zoo area
DELHI ITO
Dilshad Garden and Delhi College of Engineering
CHENNAI Guindy
Eye Hospital
KOLKATA Gole Park
Patauli
BENGALURU BTM
Nisarga Bhawan
Noisiest Quietest
55dB (decibels)
during day time
77dBPunjagutta in
Hyderabad is noisiest
74dBITO in Delhi is second
noisiest in country
Prescribed standards/limits (55 decibels)
THE TIMES OF INDIA, APRIL 26, 2016
