KATHMANDU: If you are in the habit of giving a sharp toot to your horn while behind the wheel, then you'd better shun it now. Otherwise, the traffic police nearby might make you cough up a good fine besides removing the pressure horn from your vehicle.

As the ban imposed by the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) on honking ear-splitting pressure horn — the major source of noise pollution in the Valley — comes into force from today, all the vehicles plying on the Valley roads are required to remove the pressure horns in their disposal.

DIG Binod Singh, in-charge, MTPD, said that the vehicle owners had given a one-week time to adhere to the instruction.

"Noise pollution of high magnitude, which has long been posing a serious physical and mental health threat to the Valley denizens, prompted us to take such a decision," he argued.

However, the country is yet to adopt anti-noise regulation. Dr Binod Pradhan, a health expert, said extreme sound of honking horns could cause hearing-impairment, insomnia, cardiovascular diseases and dizziness, among other ailments.

According to the MTPD, the traffic policemen have been kept vigilant at major intersections with special focus on hospital and school areas, the most vulnerable zones to noise pollution.

Singh said that the traffic cops could slap a fine of Rs 500 to Rs 5,000 to a vehicle caught red-handed for blowing pressure horn measuring more than 60 decibel (dBs) each. "The buses entering the Valley are equipped with pressure horns exceeding the intensity of 60 dBs. It is excusable to the highway-bound vehicles but we have sounded them an alarm bell to refrain from honking it once they enter here," he said.

The MTPD had been, however, working to contain the noise pollution created by the honking vehicles. Within the last one week, it managed to seize more than 500 pressure horns from defiant vehicles. The MTPD, along with Department of Transport Management, has also intensified the drive to replace pressure horns with anti-pressure horns. "We've instructed the traffic policemen fanned out elsewhere on the roads to immediately seize and remove pressure horns, including musical horns of all forms, which produce shrill and cacophonic noise," Singh added.

According to World Health Organisation (WHO), safe noise level for a city cannot exceed 45 dBs and a continuous noise levels exceeding 90 dBs can cause loss of hearing and could have irreparable consequences to human nervous system.