Lower the din

Aircraft noise a pain for residents around airport

sahil yaduvanshi, 4, loves airplanes. He does not have to go far to look at one. He just has to peer out of his playschool window and look up every few minutes to see one.

"This is Cattie...," he shouts out to his friend Pushpesh as he looks out. Sahil enjoys the sight of the planes, and wants to become a pilot when he grows up. His only complaint is to do with the roar of the planes. "I cannot hear my teacher and my friends because of the noise," Sahil said.

He studies in Aadyant pre-school in Vasant Kunj in Delhi. Most of his friends find it difficult to concentrate after a third runway--Runway 29--became operational at the Indira Gandhi airport in September 2008. "The children get disoriented as there is an airplane flying by every few minutes. We have to repeat lessons and even raise our voices to be heard," said Bhavina Bembi, a school counsellor.

In flight path
The problem of noise disturbance is not restricted to the school but the entire residential area from Andheria Modh, east of the airport, to Bijwasan to its west. These localities are in the airport flight path. "We got the noise levels in Vasant Kunj area checked privately and found it varies between 75 and 100 decibels," said Anil Sood, president of the non-profit Chetna.