BENGALURU: Bengaluru's designated ‘silence zones’ are emerging as some of the city’s loudest pockets, with noise levels breaching permissible limits by wide margins, particularly at night, outpacing even industrial areas in violations. According to the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board’s (KSPCB) May data, the RVCE Mysore Road zone registered night-time noise levels of 57.8 decibel (dB), exceeding the legal limit by 44.5%, while the Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (NIMHANS) zone reported a 29% rise above permissible levels.
Experts said one of the major contributors to this spike is ‘phantom honking’ — where drivers honk not to warn, but out of sheer habit or frustration, especially around silence zones where traffic moves slowly and enforcement is lax.
The KSPCB’s own regional office complex at SG Halli reported one of the steepest violations in a residential category, with a 61.8% spike at night. Meanwhile, industrial zones like Peenya and Whitefield — typically assumed to be noisy — remained well within the prescribed limits. This year, on average, the night-time noise levels in ‘silence zones’ like NIMHANS and RVCE Mysore Road were recorded between 61 and 64 dB(A) from February to April. This is over 50% higher than the allowed limit of 40 dB(A) in such zones. RVCE even touched a high of 70.3 dB(A), while NIMHANS recorded levels between 56 and 63 dB(A). These areas are meant to remain quiet due to their proximity to hospitals and educational institutions, yet every month they show clear and repeated violations.
Prof Ashish Verma, Transportation Systems Engineering, Convenor, IISc Sustainable Transportation Lab, pointed out that unlike cities like Mumbai and Delhi, Bengaluru lacks basic “noise barriers”, which are urgently needed in areas near hospitals and schools. He cited the example of IIT-Bombay, where noise barriers were successfully installed to mitigate the increased noise levels caused by the widening of the Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road (JVLR) to keep the campus noise-free. In contrast, he said nothing of that sort has been done so far in Bengaluru, despite growing traffic and urban activity. Noise, he added, has major effects on physical and mental health, and this cannot be ignored.
Urban planning itself also plays a role, with Prof Verma pointing out that many of Bengaluru’s silence zones sit along arterial roads or near major traffic signals, exposing them to steady flows of commuter and heavy vehicle traffic. For instance, the NIMHANS zone lies beside a signal junction and flyover ramp, while RVCE is located on the congested Mysore Road corridor. These overlaps between high-mobility infrastructure and protected zones, he argued, making it practically difficult to maintain noise below regulatory thresholds.
Rajkumar Dugar, founder and convenor of Citizens for Citizens (C4C), highlighted that along with phantom honking, most vehicle horns on roads today are either too loud, shrill, or multi-toned and often illegal. “Honking is rampant even in silence zones, residential areas at night, and without any real need. Noise pollution from vehicles, especially due to illegal horns and unnecessary honking, is a silent public health crisis. It affects physical and mental well-being, slows recovery in hospitals, and lowers productivity,” he said.
“Authorities must crack down not just on usage but also on the manufacturing and fitting of illegal horns. Noise monitoring in a city like Bengaluru cannot be limited to just 10 locations — KSPCB must scale up. Data from these centres must be actively used to take corrective action. Even during vehicle registration renewals, the Transport Department must check for compliance,” Dugar said.