New Delhi, Aug. 10 -- The Capital lived through another sleepless night on Sunday as kanwariyas traversed the city in droves, with trucks loaded with boomboxes blaring music at levels well beyond legal limits, while residents braced for severe traffic misery on Monday and Tuesday as pilgrim numbers swell alongside the weekday rush. HT's sound meters logged peaks of 110 decibels again around a clutch of Kanwar Yatra trucks, double the 55db limit for residential areas during the day and 45db at night. To be sure, the use of loudspeakers at any volume is disallowed between 10pm and 6am. Delhi Police did little to keep the blare in check, despite residents from several neighbourhoods on the Yatra route airing their concerns, especially the health effects of exposure to such volumes, coupled with the window-rattling bass. However, officers said they had stepped up deployment and that more than 250 paramilitary personnel and 1,533 police personnel will patrol the streets to maintain law and order. During a spot check on Saturday and Sunday night, HT measured the noise using professional meters in south and southeast Delhi areas including Kalindi Kunj, Shaheen Bagh, Kalkaji, Sarai Kale Khan and Ashram. The meters registered a peak of 105.2 decibels near Kalindi Kunj, close to a kanwar camp while boomboxes blared devotional music. Two camps have been set up for kanwariyas near the Kalindi Kunj metro station, and HT recorded six trucks with boomboxes passing by in 20 minutes. Even at a distance, readings oscillated between 95db and 99db. Traffic police personnel, meanwhile, managed the flow of vehicles, but turned a deaf-ear to the sustained noise violations. On Outer Ring Road, near Kalkaji temple, noise readings rocketed to 110.3 decibels, as loud as hearing a jackhammer or drill at close proximity. Similar readings were recorded at the site during the spot check on Saturday night. At the Ashram flyover, the sound touched 95.2 decibels. The disruption has become an annual recurrence, despite Indian laws prescribing a stringent legal framework governing noise levels. The Central Pollution Control Board restricts noise levels in residential areas to 55db between 6am and 10pm, and 45 decibels through the night. Loudspeakers face a hard limit of 75db at the boundary of the public place where they are used. Moreover, the Supreme Court has also prohibited the use of loudspeakers and sound amplifiers between 10pm and 6am except in public emergencies. The Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000, permit state governments to push the night cut-off to midnight on up to 15 religious or cultural days a year, but even that carve-out is bound by the 75-db ceiling. The Motor Vehicles Act separately prohibits both boomboxes and the vehicle modifications that mount them. Residents said the situation is likely to worsen this week as Mahashivratri coincides with the return to regular work schedules. "Since Friday night, the loud and vibrating music has become increasingly frequent, posing a concern for everyone - from the elderly and children to pets, who are particularly vulnerable to such noise," said Chitra Jain, president of the New Friends Colony Residents' Welfare Association (RWA)....