BARIPADA: Baripada police has launched a drive to book bikers tinkering with original silencer pipes of heavy duty two-wheelers leading to increasing noise pollution in the district headquarters town.
While the town has witnessed a spurt in the number of Royal Enfield and sports bikes, complaints of excessive noise by citizens of Baripada town has forced local police and Transport Department to levy fines on bikers under Section 190(2) of Motor Vehicle Act for replacing original silencer pipes as well as for speed driving.
Since NH-18 and two State Highways run through Baripada town, over-speeding not only leads to inconvenience, the noise adds to leads to safety hazards.
According to IIC of Baripada Town Police Ashok Kumar Nayak, police received a number of complaints from the locals, including elderly residents, about the rising noise pollution caused by the bikes following which the drive was launched.
Noise pollution apart, police has also gone after traffic norms violators of the town and collected Rs 20,700 as a penalty so far from non-helmet users alone.
“Despite awareness on road safety norms, people allow minors to drive such vehicles and reckless driving leads to road mishaps,” Nayak said. SP Awinash Kumar said violators will be booked under environment protection and RTO rules. The drive will hopefully curb reckless driving, he added.