Guwahati, Jan. 31: City traffic police, along with NGO Young Indians, have demarcated two more areas besides the already existing Panbazar as no-horn zones as part of a campaign, Horn Not Ok Please.
The campaign has identified the stretch from Christian Basti to Ganeshguri over GS Road and Borjhar area which has the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, as no-horn zones. It has pledged to make the city honk-free by spreading awareness among people against unnecessary honking and work with the government to enforce the rules and regulations.
"Panbazar area, that includes the high court and Cotton College, was already a no-horn zone. But it has not been properly followed mostly because of lack of awareness among people. So we will run this campaign in Panbazar and in a portion of Ganeshguri which has many educational institutions and hospitals. We will carry out this campaign near the airport area as the sound pollution level is already high there because of flights landing and taking off," Mehtaz Zaman Ahmed, chairman of Young Indians, told the media during the launch here today.
"With the increase of vehicles in the city, despite the police's efforts, traffic snarls have become an inevitable problem in our daily life. Air pollution is something we cannot control but we can always control noise pollution," Budhindra Morang, city's additional deputy commissioner of police (traffic), said during the launch.
Nitesh Agarwal, who is leading the campaign here in Assam, said, "People stuck in traffic snarls often tend to get frustrated and keep on honking unnecessarily. This doesn't help in any way as the man in front of him is also trapped. However, by honking he is putting stress on his heart and ears."
Ahmed said the campaign will be conducted in two phases.
"In the first phase, we will put up signboards and hoardings in the no-horn zones and other locations of the city where traffic snarls are a regular problem. We will also run these campaigns in schools and colleges. In the second phase, we will start awareness programmes with school and city bus drivers, Uber and Ola drivers and the public," Ahmed said.
