Navratri processions bring back noise, traffic woes for Delhi residents

While Navratri begins on Thursday and ends on March 27, residents say they have already begun to hear loud music in the deep hours of the night.

Residents in parts of Delhi are bracing once again for sleepless nights as celebrations for the upcoming Navratri festival bring with them a recurring nightmare — late-night processions blaring devotional music through loudspeakers and boom boxes, rattling homes and choking major roads and little police intervention despite the blatant violation of a raft of norms.

A Delhi Police officer on the condition of anonymity said that pickets will be installed at specific locations — especially on Mathura Road. (HT PHOTO)

The processions mainly enter Delhi through the borders with Ghaziabad and Noida, passing through arterial roads such as the Delhi-Meerut Expressway, National Highway-9, Mathura Road, Outer Ring Road, Aurobindo Marg, and Mehrauli-Gurugram Road. Among the worst affected are residents of east, south and southeast Delhi, particularly those who live in Greater Kailash, CR Park, Kalkaji, New Friends Colony, Nehru Place and Lajpat Nagar, among others in the vicinity of the Mathura Road and Ring Road.

While Navratri begins on Thursday and ends on March 27, when Ram Navami will be observed, residents say they have already begun to hear loud music in the deep hours of the night.

The Friends Colony East Resident Welfare Association (RWA) has even written to the police, requesting assistance to control excessive noise during the festival, saying the sound of the loudspeakers “causes significant disturbance to residents in the surrounding areas”.

“The constant noise results in anxiety, sleepless nights, and general distress for many people living near these roads. We respectfully request the police to kindly enforce existing noise control regulations, restrict the use of loud boom boxes and amplified music on trucks, especially at night, monitor traffic moving toward and from Kalkaji Mandir during the days leading up to Chaitra Navratri, and ensure that celebrations do not disturb the peace and health of nearby residents,” the letter, seen by HT, adds.

The usage of loudspeakers after 10pm is banned nationwide by the Supreme Court and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) rules permit a maximum noise level in residential areas of 55dB(A) between 6am and 10pm. This threshold falls to 45dB(A) from 10pm till 6am. Db(A), or a weighted decibel, is a measure of how loud something sounds to the human ear.

For loudspeakers, the rules mandate that the noise level at the boundary of the public place where a loudspeaker or public address system is being used shall not exceed by more than 10dB(A) the noise standards for the area or 75dB(A), whichever is lower. Additionally, sound norms are more stringent in silent zones around hospitals, where 50dB(A) is permitted during the day and 40 dB(A) after 10pm.

However, religious processions armed with boom boxes and high-decibel speakers have openly flouted these restrictions, keeping residents in and around Mathura Road awake till as much as 3am.

“The vehicles are all equipped with large boomboxes and play extremely loud music late into the night, till 12:30am or even later, making our windows visibly shake. During the Navratri days, no one here is able to sleep,” said Friends Colony East RWA secretary Triveni Mahajan. On Sunday, she said music could already be heard on Mathura Road as early as 7:30am.

A Delhi Police officer on the condition of anonymity said that pickets will be installed at specific locations — especially on Mathura Road, adding, “Action may be taken against those who play boomboxes on more than prescribed volume and or are found driving dangerously.”

However, many residents felt the police would be of little help, as has been the case in the past.

New Friends Colony Ashoka Park RWA president Chitra Jain said, “Although we do not get as many vehicles as Mathura road, some of them do still pass through here and it does affect the residents. However, we do not get any support from the police or anyone, as everyone has accepted that this is a cultural thing and a nuisance for only a short period of time. But the police should constantly monitor the traffic, and confiscate the boomboxes when these vehicles enter the city.”

B.S. Vohra, president of East Delhi RWA Joint Front, said, “The celebrations should be carried out only till the prescribed time and only within the decibel limit. If the volume is 4 or 6 times what is permitted, then naturally health problems will occur. This is a great problem as the drivers cross the city, meaning residents from all over are affected.”

Additional commissioner of police (traffic) Dinesh Kumar Gupta said there will be heavy deployment of personnel at important temples during the festival, adding that, while those coming on trucks or trolleys carrying the jyot —a diya that is supposed to be kept alight the full nine days — will be let through during the night, there will be diversions in place to ensure there is no traffic congestion.

“Diversions will be put in place on Mathura Road and Ring Road — the route primarily taken by worshippers. There will be a special deployment at Kalkaji temple as well,” he said.