She was advocating the cause of over 50,000 residents of Vasant Kunj area who have complained of acute noise pollution caused by aircraft landing or taking off from the newly-built third runway at the IGI Airport in New Delhi.

Observing that the affected people had petitioned the government in this regard, Dikshit, who was speaking at an aviation seminar in New Delhi, said she had written to the Civil Aviation Ministry last week urging it to ensure that sound barriers were implemented by the concerned authorities.

The residents of the upmarket locality, which falls under the air route, had last month approached President Pratibha Patil to help them get relief from the noise pollution caused by the frequent air traffic.

They had alleged that the third runway was cleared for construction by the Environment Ministry without going through any mandatory checks. However, the Environment Ministry has maintained that all formalities were adhered to and since the GMR-led Delhi International Airport Limited had followed the "requisite due diligence, public hearing was waived under Environment Impact Assessment Notification 2006."