With increasing number of vehicles on roads, noise levels soar in silent zones

At a hospital in Velachery, 25-year-old Ilavarasan R opened the window of the room in which his father — a heart patient — was recovering from an open heart surgery. Barely five minutes later, he shut the windows because his father found the noise from the main road unbearable.

The four-road junction at Valluvarkottam too is one of the worst when it comes to noise pollution, says Meenakshi Raman, a teacher in a high school located there. “On one side, you have around five schools and an eye hospital in the area, on the other, you have a metro water station and garbage dump. The noise pollution is so high that at times, we need to shut all the doors and windows to conduct class es in peace,” she shares.

Even in silent zones such as hospitals and schools, if Chennai fails to abide by The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, what hope does the rest of the city have of getting relief from the constant roar of traffic, blaring horns, ongoing constructions, announcements on loudspeakers and so on?

The situation is going to worsen after schools reopen in 20 days, because of the ongoing water crisis. “Water tankers are plying up and down the main road, which is understandable, but they have to be banned from honking in these zones. The sound horns are extremely loud and imagine listening to tankers, buses, garbage trucks and all the other vehicles constantly honking as loud as possible for hours together every day,” says the teacher, whose residence is also in Lake Area, Valluvarkottam.

“Noise pollution is a threat to health and well-being. It is more severe and widespread than ever before, and it will continue to increase in magnitude and severity because of population growth, urbanisation and increasing traffic noise from roads,” say K Karthik and P Partheeban, who have brought out studies on creating a road traffic noise prediction model for the busy corridors of Chennai.

“In India, the transportation sector is growing rapidly at over 7.50% per annum. This increase is the dominating source of noise especially because of constant horning and is the major source of ‘nuisance and annoyance’ as cited in social surveys,” their studies show. 

Unfortunately, Chennai is fourth on the list in terms of the noisiest cities in India but what is the real solution for this — government action or civic responsibility? “There are certain steps that the government can take starting with the state pollution control board bringing out a ‘noise pollution map’ as per CPCB order. Doing this could help identify areas, where strict implementation of the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules 2000 should be done,” says Tarunya Shankar, a lawyer with the research department of an environmental NGO.

The TNPBC, however, doesn’t have the power to enforce these rules and take action against offenders. “As per the Noise Pollution Rules, only an authority assigned by the central or state government such as District Magistrate, Police Commissioner, or any other officer not below the rank of the Deputy Superintendent of Police can be designated to maintain the ambient air quality standards with respect to noise,” clarified a senior official of the TNPBC. He further added that the Board can only provide guidance to the government with suggestions and remedies for the inherent problems.

Another solution according to Karthik and Partheeban could be changing the road surface to absorb vehicular noise. “The effects of a range of bituminous road surfaces — such as dense grade asphaltic concrete, open-graded porous asphalts, low noise formulations and cement concrete — on vehicular emission and horns can be explored,” they say.