BMC proposes 110 new silence zones in Mumbai, more to come

Following guidelines issued by the state environment department to all municipal corporations on November 21, BMC was the first civic body to send its list of proposed areas, said officials

After the Centre abolished 1,503 silence zones in the city in August this year, the city’s civic body has chosen 110 areas so far that could be demarcated as such.

Silence zones are defined as areas with a 100-m radius around hospitals or courts,among others, where noise standards are laid down as per existing rules, and should not exceed 45 decibels (dB) and 40dB during the day and night.

The state environment department had issued guidelines to all municipal corporations in the state on November 21, asking them to submit proposals demarcating possible Silence Zones.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is the only one of the 27 municipal corporations in the state to have submitted a proposal.

Silence zones are defined as areas with a 100-m radius around hospitals or courts,among others, where noise standards are laid down as per existing rules, and should not exceed 45 decibels (dB) and 40dB during the day and night.

The fresh list was sent to the urban development department (UDD) in the first week of December. The UDD and BMC did not share information on the areas identified as possible silence zones, but the list includes areas around hospitals, educational institutes and courts. Religion shrines, which were on the list earlier, have been dropped from the final list.

“We will scrutinise and consider them based on suggestions and objections from citizens, once a draft proposal is released by us,” said a senior official from the state UDD. “All other municipal corporations will be sent reminders to submit their proposals at the earliest.”

The official said it would take at least another two months to complete the process and announce the new list of Silence Zones in the state. “Of the 1,503 Silence Zones that are no longer in operation, we selected the noisiest areas around courts, hospitals and educational institutions after consulting all 24 wards as the first tranche for this proposal,” said Suprabha Marathe, deputy chief engineer, BMC environment department. “Subsequently, we received suggestions for various other locations from different wards. Once they are compiled, they will be sent to UDD.”

Meanwhile, officials from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) said a state-wide noise mapping exercise across 27 municipal corporations had been completed by them in the second week of December. “The details are currently being assessed and tabulated. It will help all municipal corporations to swiftly identify different zones,” said P Anbalagan, member secretary, MPCB.