Pollution laws to check blaring horns

Owners of buses and lorries will have to replace their blaring horns when vehicle noise pollution laws come into effect, Central Environment Authority Chairman (CEA) Charitha Herath told the Sunday Observer yesterday. He said the CEA was now familiarising traffic policemen and motor traffic officers of the new noise pollution regulations that were gazetted in December 2011. The Motor Traffic Act will also be amended to punish those who violate it.

According to the gazetted laws, vehicle horns cannot exceed a sound limit of 105 decibels at a distance of two metres and 93 decibels at a distance of seven metres, else drivers will be violating the CEA regulations.

The penalty structure will be determined in the near future."We hope to import hand-held sound metres and distribute them among traffic policemen to carry out random checks on the road. "Herath said that policemen will soon be seen carrying these metres and stopping vehicles for sound checks to ensure that drivers adhere to the laws properly.

The chairman said the public transport sector was the biggest noise culprit in Sri Lanka.There will be sound metres at emission testing centres in the future for drivers to check if the sounds emanating from their 'burglar alarms' and horns are within the stipulated limit.

MF