In a bid to make the city’s traffic-choked roads less noisy, buses run by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) will join the ‘I won’t honk’ campaign run by the Bangalore Traffic Police, in association with the city-based think tank GIREM.
The campaign aims to discourage unnecessary honking and create awareness among drivers about the ill effects of noise pollution caused by incessant honking. Apart from the traffic police and State transport corporations, corporate houses have also been roped in.
Lending his support to the campaign was the former cricketer Rahul Dravid, who flagged off two Volvo buses sporting messages supporting the campaign, along with Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy here on Friday.
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“Little things can make a big difference. Honking doesn’t get you any faster from one place to another,” said Mr. Dravid — the brand ambassador of the campaign — urging more people to support the campaign.
Mr. Reddy said honking was a problem specific to India and steps had been taken to curb excessive honking that leads to noise pollution.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) B. Dayanand spoke about the success of the ‘No honking on Mondays’ campaign started last year.
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Saying that it had managed to get 30,000 pledges from citizens so far, he said the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board, which monitored and compared the noise levels during the week and on Mondays, had found a drop in decibel levels.
“Stringent measures such as cancellation of driving licence have been put in place to tackle the problem of using shrill horns,” he said.
BMTC Managing Director Anjum Parvez said the corporation was ready to provide as many buses as needed to spread the word.