The city council has for five months been dawdling with the task of declaring silence zones in the city, even after getting the state urban development department's nod for notifying 110 such zones across Mumbai. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had last year submitted its list of 110 fresh silence zones to be demarcated in the city, and the UDD approved it on November 30, 2017. However, after five months, the BMC has neither publicised the list nor taken any steps to implement it. DNA has accessed the government gazette dated November 30, 2017, which affirms that the state has notified the areas proposed by the BMC as falling in the category of silence zones. UDD officials told DNA that after the city administration sent them the proposal, "we gave them the clearance from our side. Now the onus is on BMC to implement it." The BMC couldn't furnish any valid reason why the silence zones have not been enforced. Deputy Chief Engineer Suprabha Marathe, the civic environment department, said they recently received the list from UDD and have forwarded it to Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Zone II) for further processing. "The list will be published on BMC's website and circulated to the offices to tell people about the newly demracted zones," she said, without specifying when. According to the list list of 110 areas, of which DNA has a copy, silence zones have been marked around courts, major hospitals and schools, even as many other similar establishments have been left out. Mumbai earlier had 1,503 silence zones, but the Centre abolished it last August. The state environment department had issued guidelines to all municipal corporations asking them to propose silence zones and BMC was the first to lead the pack. Things came to a long and needless pause after that. Activist Sumaira Abdulali, convener of Awaaz Foundation, said, "It is not a secret that they have not publicised the new list of silence zones despite having UDD's nod. Firstly, BMC has drastically reduced the list to 110, leaving out many schools and hospitals. It seems officers have randomly selected the areas. The citizens have to know which areas in the city are silence zones and when will they be enforceable." A silence zone is defined as an area of 100-m radius around hospitals or courts, among others, where noise standards are laid down as per existing rules, and should not exceed 45 decibels (dB) and 40dB during day and night, respectively. KEY SILENCE ZONES Bombay Hospital, Marine Lines Hiranandani Hospital, Powai Jaslok Hospital, Peddar Road Mithibai College, Vile Parle Mount Mary Church, Bandra H N Reliance Hospital, Girgaum Vivekanand College, Chembur *Full list of 110 locations at dnaindia.com

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