Awareness programmes mark 'Horn Not OK' campaign

To reinforce the ‘Horn Not OK Please’ campaign and to commemorate the World Deaf Day, mimes and streetplays were performed by a group of students at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Sunday.

Placards with slogans to encourage better driving by reducing excessive honking dotted the road leading to the airport. With painted faces, students caught the attention of passengers, taxi drivers and staff at the airport.

The event, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-Young Indians (Bengaluru), witnessed participation of over 60 students from Sankara College of Optometry, IFIM Institution and Surana College.

They performed mimes and streetplays, stressing the perils of honking. “The last Sunday of September is observed as World Deaf Day. We chose this day to launch the awareness drive against unnecessary honking on the Airport Road. The objective of the campaign is to free the entire city from honking,” said Rajesh Kumar B, chairperson of Young Indians (Bengaluru). As per a recent study by the Central Pollution Control Board, Bengaluru was rated the seventh noisiest city in India.

“We are making conscious efforts to introduce initiatives that enable us to operate in a sustainable manner. One such initiative was adopting the ‘silent airport’ philosophy to eliminate unnecessary sound at our terminal,” said Hari Marar, president, airport operations, KIAL.

B Vijayakumar, ACP (traffic), Bengaluru North, said that they will work with CII-Young Indians in identifying and enforcing ‘Horn Not OK’ zones across the city in the coming days. Many passengers and drivers took the ‘Horn Not OK’ pledge, in a bid to reduce noise from unnecessary honking.