Bengaluru: The government seems to have finally woken up to the noise pollution caused by aircraft in and around airports.
The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has published draft rules setting out the acceptable noise levels for airport operations. The draft rules seek to amend The Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and have been published by the ministry seeking public comments.
According to the notification, the specified limits shall have a tolerance limit of 10 decibels. The notification states that the specified limit excludes aircraft landing and takeoff noise. Besides, the airport noise zone limits in above table shall replace noise limits of area zones mentioned in Noise (Regulation & Control) Rules 2000 with reference to silence, residential and commercial area zones.
The notification states that noise standards within the boundary for various airports shall be as applicable for industrial areas, that is day time 75 dbA and night time 70 dBA, as an airport is also an industry.
The notice adds that daytime means 6 am to 10 pm and night time from 10 pm to 6 am. The notice states that ‘busy airports’ shall be as classified as major airports defined under the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority (AERA) of India Act, 2008.
A Bengaluru International Airport Ltd spokesperson said she was not aware of the developments and that they had not received any official communication from the ministry.
An HAL spokesperson too confirmed that they had not received any official message from the ministry in this regard.
Aviation enthusiast and a member of the Bangalore Chambers of Industry and Commerce Devesh Agarwal questioned the proposed move. “How can you control noise levels at existing busy airports? It is going to have a massive economic impact,” he said.
Citing the example of Delhi’s Palam Airport, he said, “It has Indian Air Force’s Il-76 Gajraj strategic airlifters constantly landing and taking off. These are Russian aircraft and their Aviadvigatel PS-90-76 turbofans create huge amounts of noise.”
He said that the Delhi and Mumbai Airports would be affected the most if the rules come into effect as they don’t have alternative airports.
