3 days Ago
Pune: The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board will be monitoring noise levels at 15 locations in Pune city from 7am on Tuesday to 7am on Wednesday, to listen for any deviations in rules by Ganesh pandals. The noise limit for processions through the city has been set at 80 decibels. Board officials told TOI that MPCB personnel will be out on patrols in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad to monitor levels and report any exceedance to the police.
"The 15 locations in Pune city are all along the visarjan route and include major junctions such as Alka Chowk, Sambhaji Chowk, University Circle. If levels are found beyond 80 decibels, we'll let the police know and they in turn will tell the pandals to turn down the volume," said Jagannath Salunkhe, regional officer, Pune, MPCB. On Aug 30, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had told the Board to carry out real-time noise monitoring at all Ganesh pandals in the city through the 10 days of Ganeshotsav in Pune, especially on immersion day.
The Board was also told to display decibel levels on digital boards at major junctions, put up banners for awareness and also display daily levels near Ganesh pandals. Organisers themselves have been restricted to one loudspeaker for a pandal below 40 feet in length. No DJ or large sound systems have been permitted during the processions.
The cops have been told to register offences if Noise Rules, 2000, are broken. "The Board will increase monitoring depending on noise levels in the city and the number of complaints. Officers will be on patrol, making their way through major pandal stations in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad.
We may even increase monitoring stations to 25 if the need arises," Salunkhe said. Students from College of Engineering, Pune, will also be monitoring noise levels at 10 locations on Laxmi Road in Pune. "This is in fact our 25th year of monitoring Ganeshotsav.
All data will be made available after the processions," said Mahesh Shindikar, head of the environment department at CoEP Technical University..
