If your motorbike has a silencer that draws loathsome stares whenever it rumbles to life and a multi-tone horn that makes one’s heart skip a beat the moment it zips past the busy lanes, you are likely to be in the spotlight for wrong reasons.
The Transport Department and the Traffic Police are now cracking the whip on the riders who customise their swanky motorbikes with additional features for an amplified effect.
Those who have already replaced the manufacturer-fitted silencer with the modified version are now under the scanner. In the recent past, a number of cases have been booked against those who caused noise pollution and a penalty up to ₹1,000 has been charged against each violator of norms. “The recent figures indicate that more than 1,000 cases have been booked against the riders for using multi-tone horns and above 300 cases for altering silencers that emanate noise higher than the permissible limit,” says S. Venkateswara Rao, Deputy Transport Commissioner.
Adding to the statistics, Assistant Commissioner of Police (traffic) Kinjarapu Prabhakar says the traffic police are keen on preventing the violation. “The count of those who tampered with silencers alone crossed 250 in the past few weeks and we are firming up our plans to keep a close tab on those who violate the rules and book cases against them online,” Mr. Prabhakar has told The Hindu .
As per the Central Motor Vehicles Rule 120 (2), the maximum permissible noise level of a two-wheeler is 80 decibel. There are eight manual noise monitoring stations spread across the city, including Jagadamba and NAD junctions, Gajuwaka and Maddilapalem. “This apart, two real time noise monitory systems are placed at Indira Gandhi Zoological Park and Siripuram junction,” says R. Lakshminarayana, Environmental Engineer of Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board.
Staff shortage
In a city where the number of two-wheelers is six lakh, the officials say the process of monitoring becomes easy if they had advanced technology applications. “With shortage of staff turning out to be a major issue, the introduction of the Intelligent Transport System (ITS) is certain to provide solution to effective monitoring and a proposal has been made to the State government to usher in such a system,” says Mr. Venkateswara Rao.
