Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Aug 18: Shally Rajan, Regional Director, J&K SPCB has warned against the increasing noise pollution especially due to rise in number of vehicles in Jammu.
In a statement issued here, today she said that situation could get out of hands if urgent steps to check this menace were not taken. Local administration along with Traffic Police need to prepare a task force to identify the noise causing automobiles and grossly polluting vehicles and weed them out to save environment.
She said strip plantation and fast growing green belts must be developed along highways and internal roads which can very effectively control the noise/air pollution emitted by automobiles. Pressure horns must be strictly banned in residential areas and silent zones to bring down emission, she added.
She said levels of noise pollution in the city have reached alarming proportions. Honking of horns all around coupled with disorderly maintained old and out dated vehicles is causing lot of nuisance to the people living adjoining city roads and adjacent to high vehicular density areas.
While referring to a week long study conducted by J&K SPCB at various traffic intersections and roundabouts of Jammu district under her supervision with a team headed by Kuldeep Bhan I/C Vehicular Pollution Jammu region and supported by Raman Gupta, Field Inspector, she said the study has come up with some alarming results vis-a-vis noise pollution. The average noise levels as monitored against permissible levels of maximum 65 db for commercial areas have been recorded as : Panama Chowk – 76.87 db, Narwal Chowk 78.73 db. Gandhi Nagar opposite Army Gate 81.25 db, Gumat Chowk 81.06 db, Indira Chowk 74.80 db / Medical College Bakshi Nagar 75.88 db, Amphalla Chowk 79.31 Satwari Chowk- 81.28 db.
In a recently conducted similar drive by SPCB with Traffic Police 264 vehicles were intercepted out of which 85 were challaned for not having valid PUC. Huge smoke and sounds produced by knocking of outdated engines is increasingly becoming unbearable by the day, she added.
It is assumed that people of all age groups can fast experience a dip in quality of hearing power and some in old age groups are getting exposed to health hazards like anxiety, hypertension and depression due to constantly agonizing noise around.
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