Effect of odd-even vehicular restrictions on ambient noise levels at ten sites in Delhi city

Abstract

The paper describes the ambient noise data acquired in Delhi city under diversified National Ambient Noise Monitoring Network (NANMN) set up across seven major cities of India and covering 70 stations for continuous noise monitoring throughout the year. The annual average L_day (06:00-22:00 h) and L_night (22:00-06:00 h) values observed in year 2016 in month of January and April for the 10 locations in Delhi city have been described to analyze the effect of odd-even restrictions on the ambient noise levels. The study shows that ambient noise levels have marginally decreased at some sites. The study discusses the noise levels acquired under the NANMN project only for the ten sites and thus shouldn’t be interpreted as generic scenario for Delhi city. Also, the present study may not be misinterpreted with the success or failure of odd-even restrictions implemented for reducing pollution in Delhi city of India.