Impressed with Mumbai police’s ‘punishing signal’ initiative, Telangana’s Municipal Administration Minister K.T. Rama Rao is keen to replicate this in Hyderabad to deal with the honking menace.
“Let’s get this done in our Hyderabad too. Need of the hour,” the minister asked the top officials with a re-tweet of Mumbai police’s video.
KTR, as the minister is popularly known, tagged Telangana Director General of Police, Hyderabad Police Commissioner and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) Commissioner.
As motorists in Mumbai honk even at traffic signals, Mumbai police introduced what is called ‘punishing signals’. They connected decibel meters to a few signal poles. “If the decibel levels went over 85 dB, the signal would reset and stay red for longer,” says the Mumbai police video.
“Honk more wait more’ and ‘Feel free to honk if you don’t mind waiting’ are the taglines of Mumbai police’s campaign.
Netizens welcomed the proposal by KTR, who is the son of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao. They hoped the move would go a long way in curbing the menace of unnecessary honking.
However, there were suggestions for him to first focus on improving the road conditions, providing road-over-bridges for pedestrians, ensure proper functioning of the signals and tackle the problem of parking.
