Drive to quieten Dubai's roads

Noisy modified motors are proving hard to get off the roads, an official at Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) said.

Vehicle testing centres in the emirate do not have noise testers, which means the vehicles that produce the annoying sounds are being passed to be driven, Ahmed Hashim Bahrozyan, CEO of the Licensing Agency at the RTA, told 7DAYS.

While traffic police in Dubai fine motorists who drive noisy modified vehicles, Bahrozyan said it is still difficult to stop the vehicles’ owners from obtaining registration since no noise test takes place.

“We do not have a noise tester at the existing vehicle testing facilities and that is a challenge,” said Bahrozyan.

“All vehicles that have been modified beyond the permissible noise levels cannot pass the test but at the moment we don’t have the exhaust noise-level tests that they do in most developed countries.

“We have received complaints from motorists and residents regarding vehicles producing noise. We are now in the process of acquiring noise testers. Very soon all vehicles will have to undergo noise testing before being passed for registration.”

Bahrozyan said police had been intensifying a crackdown on the problem and had been issuing Dhs500 fines for each noise-making modification found on vehicles.

However, he noted, to avoid being caught by police, most owners of such vehicles tended to drive them in

isolated places. Last month the Ruler of Sharjah ordered excessively noisy cars to be confiscated.

abdu.baasit@7days.ae