Pune: While the vehicular population in the city is 58.72 lakh, of these around 25 per cent vehicles hit the road daily. On an average, a vehicle user honks 5 to 10 times on the route. So, in Pune district alone, horns are blown over crore times in a day the RTO said in a press conference in the city on Saturday.
As per the directives issued by the Central and State governments, various government departments such as Road Transport Department, Police Department and Health Department have been asked to launch programmes to make road travel safer.
Under the programme, it has also been mentioned that a special mission should be launched to reduce sound pollution. The district will observe September 12 as ‘No Horn Day’ as part of the government’s efforts to rein in sound pollution. The Pune Regional Transport Office and Pune police have joined hands to spread awareness about the ill effects of honking among the public.
“Sound pollution has become a big problem, of late. Hence, it is important that school and college students, as well as the public at large, are educated about the ill effects of honking. ‘No Horn Day’ is aimed at creating awareness about the benefits of avoiding honking. Hence, we are coordinating with various educational institutions, NGOs as well as other organisations such as the State transport corporation, city transport, autorickshaw unions to make it a success,” said BI Ajri, Pune RTO. Tejaswi Satpute, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Pune police, was also present.
“The traffic police regularly take action against modified horns, silencers and slap a fine on errant drivers. In the coming times, the traffic police will take action against drivers who honk unnecessarily,” said Tejaswi Satpute, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Traffic Pune.
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