The environment department conducted a total of five mobile court drives in Dhaka, Gazipur and Savar as part of the campaign.

The officials said the standard emission limit of a vehicle is 65 HSU. But the nine vehicles tested by the mobile court emitted smoke beyond the standard.

The tolerable noise limit is 60 decibels in Manik Mia Avenue in the daytime, but the authorities recorded 110, 97, 99, 98 and 101dB noises produced by horns used by the nine cars.

A bus operated by Hanif Paribahan has also been fined for noise pollution. But Ruhul Amin, the driver of the bus, claimed that his vehicle did not have a hydraulic horn.

Pointing at the horn, he said, “it’s not a hydraulic horn. It’s called a TT horn, which produces less noise. But they (environment department officials) are claiming that it causes more noise and fined us Tk 3,000.”

Dhaka recently topped the list of cities on the bad air quality index due to heavy dust particles found in the air at the onset of winter.

On Jan 22, the air pollution score was 271 for the capital, which was described as very unhealthy by IQAir, a Swiss group that measures air quality levels. The air pollution score was recorded at 163 AQI on Wednesday.