‘Assess noise level to set speed limit on highways’

Driving fast on highways not only increases noise levels, but also doesn’t help you reach your destination really fast. A recent experiment by the expressway administration and highway traffic authorities showed that a speeding car (at over 100 kmph) going from Panvel to Pune will gain only eight to nine minutes as compared to a car driven at the stipulated speed of 80 kmph.

In fact, their attempt to reach their destination only a few minutes earlier comes at a huge risk to their lives. What they also don’t realise is that thousands of people living near highways spend sleepless nights due to the high noise levels as “a vehicle’s speed directly ups noise levels”.

“While traffic snarls automatically curb speeding in the city during day, nights offer near empty roads, and vehicles go on to create unacceptable noise levels, affecting the sleeping pattern of lakhs of people living parallel to highways,” said Dr Dhanesh Manik, mechanical engineering professor (IIT-Bombay), and a member of the Committee on Noise Pollution Control.

Stating that noise barriers are not a  solution, Manik said, “Instead of installing costly noise barriers, every major stretch of a road should be assessed from safety and noise pollution viewpoints to decide the allowable speed limit. This speed limit should be strictly enforced 24x7. By using electronic displays, the limit should be made variable during day and night,” he said.

The stipulated ambient levels of noise according to the Noise Pollution Rules, 2000, are 55 dBA during day (6 am to 10 pm) and 45 dBA during night (10 pm to 6 am) in a residential zone.
In addition, ambient levels cannot increase by more than 10 dBA than the stipulated levels even for a short period of time.