Is the construction in your neighbourhood giving you sleepless nights?

Or your neighbour's renovation getting on your nerves?

Or your building's heating system too noisy for comfort?

New Beijing rules on controlling noise pollution, effective next month, will bring relief to your eardrums.

Construction companies face fines of up to 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) seven times the current penalty if they make noise at the wrong time.

Noisy construction work is banned between 10 pm and 8 am or during middle-school or college-entrance examination days.

For the first time, house owners will be fined if the din from interior decoration severely disturbs neighbours.

Property management firms can be fined up to 100,000 yuan (US$12,500) if the building's public facilities such as the air-conditioning or heating systems fail noise criteria.

Drivers are banned from honking in no-horn zones and street vendors are barred from using loudspeakers to woo customers. Violators face a fine of up to 50,000 yuan (US$6,250).

"The new noise management regulation is comprehensive and systematic. It requires the concerted efforts of environment protection and traffic management authorities and residential communities," said Zhai Xiaohui, spokeswoman for the city's environment bureau.

City residents were almost unanimous in giving the thumbs-up to the regulation, approved recently by the municipal government.

"It will help reduce the increasing noise pollution in our daily lives," said Wang Xiongjun, a resident of Haidian District who suffers from insomnia because of housing construction in his community.

Wang suggested the government and real-estate developers use noise-reduction materials in both public and residential projects, and install more noise barriers along roads near residential areas.

Beijing has been experiencing worsening noise pollution in tandem with rapid development.

Figures from the city's environment protection bureau show that complaints about noise made up half the complaints on all environmental issues during the past two years.

Noise is mainly from construction sites, hawkers or home improvements, according to the environment bureau.

The previous noise management regulation was issued in 1984 and revised in 1997.