As part of an ongoing joint enforcement initiative to implement designated silent zones, a coordinated operation involving the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and the Department of Environment was carried out.
In this connection, a brief gathering was organized at 10:30 am on Tuesday in front of the High Court’s Mazar Gate.
The event was attended as chief guest by Syeda Rizwana Hasan, Adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. She said that since the promulgation of the Noise Pollution Control Rules, 2025, which empower the police to impose on-the-spot fines, coordinated enforcement drives have been conducted to ensure the implementation of silent zones. She noted that the first such joint operation was inaugurated in the airport area last month.
Expressing optimism, she said that if the police and the Department of Environment work together after the election, it may be possible to free citizens from the persistent menace of noise pollution. She added that the current interim government has enacted the Noise Pollution Control Rules, 2025, and that effective implementation of these rules would enable meaningful control of noise pollution.
The Environment Adviser further said that areas in Dhaka already declared as silent zones would be implemented by the new government after the election. She emphasized that strict enforcement of the law could significantly curb noise pollution and unnecessary use of vehicle horns. Unwarranted honking, she said, is not only a nuisance but also a punishable offence.
Also present at the event were the Director General of the Department of Environment, Dr Nurun Nahar; the Administrator of Dhaka South City Corporation, Md Mahmudul Hasan, NDC; the Chairman of BRTA, Abu Mumtaz Sad Uddin Ahmed; Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Mohammad Navid Shafiullah; Additional Police Commissioner (Administration) of DMP, Md Sarwar, BPM (Service); Additional Police Commissioner (Traffic) of DMP, Md Anisur Rahman; Additional Director General of the Department of Environment, Md Ziaul Haque; and Farid Ahmed, Project Director of the Integrated and Partnership-Based Project for Noise Pollution Control. Senior officials from the Ministry, DMP, DSCC, BRTA and the Department of Environment were also in attendance.
Following the brief discussion, mobile courts were conducted at four designated silent-zone points by executive magistrates and prosecutors from the Department of Environment, DMP, DSCC and BRTA. The operations were carried out with the support of more than one hundred DMP police officers, Traffic Assistant Group (TAG), and sixty volunteers from the environmental organization Green Voice. Fines were imposed during the operations.
Concerned authorities stated that this coordinated drive against noise pollution will continue.
