Mumbai: In a bid to keep tabs on rising noise pollution, traffic police are conducting a special drive across the city against sports bike owners who illegally modify silencers of their vehicles. In the drive that was begun last week, there was a coordinated crackdown on bikers who had illegally modified their motorcycles and collected Rs 1.32 lakh in fines, said a traffic police officer.
Across the city, 81 Royal Enfield owners were fined and 51 sports bike owners also faced traffic police action. Each violator was slapped with a fine of Rs 1,000 for modifying their bikes for better performance. To stop this menace, traffic police have begun to zero in on youth who modify the exhaust pipes in their motorcycles, creating cacophony as they whizz by. Amitesh Kumar, joint commissioner of police (traffic) said complaints of deafening sounds of modified silencers have been pouring in on the traffic police’s WhatsApp helpline and their Twitter handle.
“The speeding bikes and the loud sounds at night due to modification of silencers continue to give sleepless nights to citizens. Residents have been complaining about the menace, wherein these biker youths modify their regular bikes into super bikes to perform deadly stunts and participate in bike races,” said Kumar. Earlier, local police said, when such modified bikes were seized, they would issue notices to owners and ask them to restore the bikes to their regular state. “Most youngsters tend to disturb the peace by riding through narrow lanes at night with huge bike silencers, causing the sound to echo even more.
They do not care about the inconvenience to the aged, ailing and newborns,” said Anis Zindran, a senior citizen and a resident of Bazar Road. However, when police requests fell on deaf ears, they had to begin a citywide crackdown. Some residents claimed to have informed the police control rooms several times, only to have the police arrive at the spot too late. Harshal Nanavare said, “My neighbours and I have called up the control room as late as 4am in the morning to complain about the ruckus, but their patrolling cars arrive only after the troublemakers have left the spot”.
A senior police official said, “Such drives are essential to keep the city’s noise pollution in check. We will now organise such initiatives on a regular basis. However, none of the violators were minors or else stricter action would have been taken against their parents.” When the bikers modify their vehicle silencers, adding to noise pollution, it is a clear violation of section 190(2) of the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act, 1988, where a present silencer is replaced with a modified one. This violation of the MV act and the offence is punishable with a fine of Rs 1,000 and if caught the second time, a fine of Rs 2,000. However, if the traffic violator is caught the third time, then the vehicle will be seized.
