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Noise filters on flyovers
If you live near a flyover, you might be able to hear your favourite song on radio without the roar of a monstrous truck interfering.
If you live near a flyover, you might be able to hear your favourite song on radio without the roar of a monstrous truck interfering.
The state has now made it mandatory for all important traffic projects in the city to have sound barriers or ‘arrestor’
devices fixed on them. This would come as a relief to Mumbaiites staying along main roads, elevated roads and flyovers.
A committee of experts will study all such roads and take a decision on where and how the barriers can be put up. This will be conveyed to the respective authorities in charge of the road.
Noise barriers are solid obstructions built between the roads and the neighbourhood, which reduce overall noise levels. An arrester is a noise-controlling system that absorbs unwanted noise, and is used usually on flyovers where constructing tall walls might not be possible.
In a circular sent in December, the government had asked the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, railways and municipal corporations to set up noise barriers on existing and new flyovers as well as on elevated rail networks, and include them in upcoming plans in the entire state.
It specified that all flyovers less than 30 metres away from buildings would have some kind of barricade for noise levels in excess of 60-70 decibels.
Minister of State for Urban Development Hasan Mushrif said, “A noise preventive system will be installed near IIT-Powai on the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road being built by the MMRDA.”
A plan to reduce noise pollution near the international airport is also being planned in six months, government sources said.
“This step is positive. But I hope that before they decide which technology can be used where, a survey of decibel levels of roads is done to determine what kind of barriers will work in which areas,” said noise expert Sumaira Abdul Ali of Awaaz Foundation.