Once a calm suburb, Gachibowli emerges as Hyderabad’s noisiest area

The widespread real estate development and high volumes of traffic on the Mumbai old highway here has escalated the place to the top of noise recordings in the city.

Hyderabad: Once an island of tranquillity, tucked away on the city outskirts, the University of Hyderabad (UoH) campus at Gachibowli is increasingly getting swamped by the din.

In fact, it is not a commercial Abids or an industrial Sanathnagar, but a demarcated sensitive area of Gachibowli that has emerged as the noisiest place in Hyderabad. The widespread real estate development and high volumes of traffic on the Mumbai old highway here has escalated the place to the top of noise recordings in the city.

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The data on noise levels generated by the Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TGPCB) reveals how the UoH monitoring station recordings have left behind the other parts of the city including the ever-busy commercial hubs such as Abids, JNTU and even the routinely blamed for pollution industrial areas of Jeedimetla and Gaddapotharam.

In areas identified as ‘sensitive’, the acceptable noise levels are put around 50 decibels (dB) in day time and 40 dB during night time. However, Gachibowli noise recordings have zoomed well ahead of the limits and the PCB recordings for the first ten days of February show them touching the 73.53 dB.

In the day time, the day time noise levels here on all the ten days was above 70 dB while during the nights, it hovered between 69 dB and 70 dB.

On February 3 for instance, the day time noise levels at Gachibowli was 73.53 dB while at the commercial area of Abids it was recorded as 56.05 dB and at the residential zone of Jubilee Hills, the noise levels were 58.66 dB.

Another designated sensitive area of Hyderabad, the Nehru Zoological Park too has been witnessing an increased noise levels with the February’s first ten day data ranging 65 dB to 67 dB.

Those who have witnessed the metamorphosis of Gachibowli along with its circle of growth that includes Kondapur, Madhapur, Financial District, Nallagandla and Tellapur, recalls how the serenity and tranquillity of the place has been shattered in last couple of decades.

Noise daily data at Gachibowli (Sensitive area) from February 1 to 9:

Date	Day	Night
February 1	72.90	70.10
February 2	72.49	70.63
February 3	73.53	69.30
February 4	72.52	69.35
February 5	72.23	69.51
February 6	72.5	69.53
February 7	72.05	71.17
February 8	71.52	69.64
February 9	71.91	69.66

(Data from TG PCB, Noise levels in decibels)