<img alt="" src="/imagedata/2010/jun/dilli.jpg" align="left" border="0" />Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who certainly does not lack noble causes to support, has now decided to do something about prevailing noise levels in the country's leading metros. As a recent survey details, bustling Mumbai and Dilli are not just the noisiest cities in the country but among the loudest in the world. Though the prescribed national standard of noise is 65 decibels per ampere, noise levels in our cities are routinely higher at 75-80 decibels even at night (ITO in Dilli and Bandra in Mumbai are the worst)! But armed with a Rs 200 crore allocation, the activist minister has started by reviving a network of remote noise monitoring stations in seven cities to track noise levels and help authorities devise suitable traffic plans. He also hopes to ultimately integrate noise standards in urban planning. Even from a pragmatic mantri like Ramesh, the plan sounds too futuristic to our cynical (and by now quite deaf) ears, but we'll be listening very closely. Shiny, new ride The Delhi Metro's Airport Express Line's search for higher ridership may end with luggage and passenger check-in facilities to be finally put in a month from now by May 1, they say. Nevertheless, the two-month-old airport line has already received a thumb-up from commuters. The general opinion is that the speed and comfort on the hi-tech trains have made the regular Metro already look old and dowdy. This fulsome praise should delight officials who struggled with delays before the inauguration. The project should also provide a powerful fillip to advocates of the public-private partnership model (the Delhi Airport Metro Express Pvt Ltd is a subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure). And with nearby Gurgaon too rushing full steam ahead with its own Metro project, slated to open in 2013, commuters can look forward to more easy rides.

Environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who certainly does not lack noble causes to support, has now decided to do something about prevailing noise levels in the country's leading metros

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