Kathmandu, February 21

Traffic police have renewed warning against honking unnecessarily in Kathmandu Valley.

Senior Superintendent of Police Basant Kumar Pant, in-charge at Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, said traffic cops had stepped up action against drivers and riders caught defying the ban on needless honking. According to MTPD, as many as 75 unruly drivers and riders were booked from 6:30am to 10:00am today.

Authorities had imposed a ban on needless honking in the valley with effect from 14 April 2017 in accordance with Section 164 (c) of the Motor Vehicle and Transport Management Act, 1993. A total of 30,027 persons have been booked since. Of them, 9,663 were punished in the fiscal 2016-17, 15,405 in 2017-18 and 4,959 in the current fiscal. According to MTPD, no one should blow horn in circumstances other than invisibility of vehicles coming from the opposite direction and higher chance of accident in the event of not honking. This provision is applicable to all public, private, tourist and government-owned vehicles, both two-wheelers and four-wheelers. However, emergency vehicles, ambulances, fire engines and police vans/jeeps are not obliged to follow the rule.

Traffic police may fine an offender with an amount of up to Rs 500 if he/she is found honking unnecessarily.

Noise pollution in commercial places, new and old residential areas and tourist spots of the Valley exceed the Guidelines for Community Noise set by the World Health Organisation.

According to Environmental Statistics of Nepal-2013 released by the Central Bureau of Statistics, five traffic areas go over the limit or permissible level of 70 decibels (dB) for road traffic noise. The statistics list Kupandole as the most noise-polluted traffic area with 77 dB noise level followed by Putalisadak with 75 dB, Kalanki 74 dB, Maitighar 71 dB and Suryabinayak 71 dB during the daytime.