Riders do take a note! In case, you are thinking that you can still roam scot-free across the city, blaring loud 'loud pipes' and showing off a badass nature, then you're wrong.
From now onwards, if the city police catches you with a defective silencer in your bike or car, you will not just end up paying but also have no other option than being a mute spectator to the bulldozers which will crush your silencer publicly on the road itself.
Crackdown on faulty silencers
In a first innovative step of its kind, the district police of Udupi, a southwest coastal city in Karnataka, located approximately 422 kilometers away from Bengaluru, have bulldozed 51 defective silencers this week for causing noise pollution.
As per Times of India reports, the act was carried out in the presence of superintendent of police N Vishnuvardhan and additional superintendent of police Kumarchandra on Wednesday. Vishnuvardhan said that he was flooded with complaints of youths moving around the city in their vehicles with modified silencers.
This problem was acute especially during the weekends, the SP said, adding that his team carried out a special drive to identify such vehicles that were causing sound pollution and took steps to publicly destroy them to send a clear message to the violators.
Violating Motor Vehicle Act
This strict action has also been taken during the ongoing National Road Safety Month that is being observed from January 18 to February 17.
The police said that the such silencers have been locally modified and those involved in such illegal act are punishable under section 52 and 190(2) of the Motor Vehicle Act with a fine ranging from Rs 500 to Rs 2000, by getting the municipal corporation authorities to cancel their trade license.
Reports have stated that the city police has so far booked 51 cases, including 50 against motorcyclists and collected Rs 25,500 in the form of fine from them, between January 1 to 31.
The MV Act permits a maximum sound ranging from 80-91decibel, with the least mandated at 80dB for two-wheeler motorcycle and 91 dB for passenger, commercial vehicles with gross vehicle weight above 12,000kgs.
Vishnuvardhan noted that his team will further extend this drive to the rest of the district to put an end to this problem from the root.
