Noise monitoring and modeling on four lanning of national highways corridor.

Noise emitted from traffic contributes to about 55% of total noise pollution in India. This paper is an effort of a research conducted to quantify and analyze the traffic noise emissions along the Salem-Namakkal NH 7 corridor with an ultimate objective of setting up a traffic noise model based on the traffic noise conditions of Indian cities. Noise levels and other variables have been measured in 15 locations to develop a statistical regression model based on A-weighted equivalent noise level for Indian road conditions. The ambient noise levels recorded represent the higher noise levels prevailing along the NH 7 corridor. The Receptor Oriented Technique adopted proves to be helpful in characterizing the ambient noise levels along the study area. The newly developed road traffic noise model can be effectively used as a decision support tool for predicting equivalent noise levels in the cities of India. The present analysis also reveals that the magnitude of noise levels has an increasing trend due to the increased traffic flow and presents the attention needed for minimization. The mitigation measures and the future evaluations are discussed.