Declare Panchsheel Park as "silence zone": NGT

The National Green Tribunal today directed authorities in South Delhi's Panchsheel Park to declare it as a "silence zone" and confine the speed of vehicles in the area to 30 km per hour.
A bench headed by justice P Jyothimani directed that the traffic police shall see that no overloaded vehicles are allowed in the area and no pressure horns allowed in any circumstance.
The Tribunal also directed the residents of Panchsheel Park to insulate the windows of their houses so that minimum sound pollution is caused and employ methods like vegetative boundaries to confine the noise caused.
"Traffic police shall take steps to install speed cameras to monitor speed of vehicles and immediately challan vehicles to the tune of Rs 1000 as per polluter pays principle," the bench said.

It warned that the traffic police shall be responsible for any violation in prescribed speed limits or noise pollution and asked it to submit a report on number of challans carried by it in this regard.
It also directed the Chief Secretary of Delhi government and officers of other concerned departments to be present on April 17, next date of hearing.

Earlier, Delhi Pollution Control Committee had informed the Tribunal that roadside noise levels near Panchsheel Park area in South Delhi were beyond permissible limits.
The directions came while hearing a petition of Omesh Saigal, a resident of Panchsheel Park, who had alleged that noise pollution, generated due to heavy traffic flow on the Outer Ring road, was affecting the health of the people living in the area.

His petition had sought directions to the government or any of the civic bodies to install screens, to block the noise, along both sides of the road.