Every year in June, Mumbai Police’s Traffic Control, also called as Mumbai Traffic Police (MTP) reserves one day as 'No-Honking' day. This year, its on June 14, Wednesday. The reason is to curb noise pollution that is caused due to excessive noise generated from honking by motor vehicles. While MTP ambitiously plans the idea of no-honking for a day, motorists wonder if not honking is an option for them in a crowded city like Mumbai?
The deputy commissioner of police Pravin Padwal, Traffic, advised people saying, "Unnecessary honking causes noise pollution and has an adverse impact on one's health. Motorists are advised to ensure that they don't honking, except for emergency service vehicles."
He further added that strict action will be taken against motorists and their vehicles if found honking unnecessarily under the Motor Vehicle Act and the Environment Protection Act.
Motorists React
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The Free Press Journal spoke to motorists to know what they think about the move. Jagruti Gaikwad, who drives her four-wheeler everyday for work purposes from Mulund to Andheri said one day out of the 365 days kept as a silent day is pointless. "Maybe people will not honk thinking about the fines traffic police will slap on them, but will this one day actually change the impact of noise pollution? If only people start following it day to day basis, maybe then things could change," she said. Echoing her stance, another motorist named Vipul Kumar, owner of yet another 4-wheeler, said, "We can do it everyday provided people learn to drive in discipline. Who drives properly in our city? Who follows traffic norms? Neither us motorists, nor pedestrians. Nor do we have proper footpath and good roads for that matter. Not honking should be an option for us to follow us religiously and strictly."
Adding to it, a truck driver who mainly carries goods in the Crawford Market area feels all these new initiatives are good for highways and freeways. "In our area, there is barely road left. One side it's used as a parking space, another for vendors and hawkers to run their shop, the remaining area is for pedestrians and something, if, left, is for vehicles to pass by. If we don't honk, we may have to stay put in one place for maybe 2 hours. People don't move unless we blast the horn on them. Hence, these are good for major highways and freeways where the road is wide, the vehicles are moving at one direction in a queue," he said on the condition of anonymity.
Some motorists also blamed 2-wheelers to be the reason Mumbai can never be noise pollution free. Soumya Rajendran, a resident of Chheda Nagar, Ghatkopar said, "I see traffic everyday from my house window. While I have seen four-wheelers going through in one queue, the two-wheelers are the exact opposite. They get a small gap, they rush through it like no tomorrow. I feel two-wheelers breaks the flow of traffic by disrupting the movements. In such cases, being a four-wheelers rider myself, not honking is never an option. Their rash driving also adversely leads to accidents!"
