The Tirupati Urban police are toying with the idea of declaring Tirumala, the abode of Lord Venkateswara, a ‘no-horn zone.’
The intention is to control sound pollution and preserve the serene environs of the sacred town.
Tirupati Superintendent of Police A. Ramesh Reddy, who has played a pivotal role during the lockdown, is keen on eliciting views of the public, a cross-section of devotees and officials before going ahead with the proposal.
Increase in traffic
Vehicular traffic on the Tirumala ghat road has increased by leaps and bounds during the past one decade with a sizeable number devotees from neighbouring States such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Maharastra and of late, Kerala and Chhattisgarh, coming in private vehicles.
The town experiences an average footfall of around 75,000 pilgrims in a day of whom about 35 % come in their own vehicles and cabs.
According to rough estimates, around 5,000 vehicles, including private cabs/jeeps, ply on the ghat roads daily in addition to APSRTC operating hundreds of services till midnight.
To enable the wild and other nocturnal animals to breed in comfort, the TTD has restricted the movement of vehicles on both roads for three hours — between midnight and 3 am every day.
Senior officials of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD), however, feel that it will be difficult to implement the silent zone proposal given the practical difficulties.
Several VVIPs and VIPs visit the town at regular intervals and it is next to impossible to put restrictions on their convoys.
More than 50-60 % of the visiting pilgrims are first-timers and probably may not be aware of the restrictions. They naturally tend to honk horns and if the practice is prohibited, what is the alternative, the officials question.
Both these issues need to be sorted out before putting the restrictions in place, they say.
Already, honking of horns is banned in a radius of 100 metres in the sacred shrine area.
