Aizawl: President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday heaped praise on Aizawl’s ‘no honking’ and “noise pollution-free” culture and urged other cities to emulate it.
“I have been told that despite busy traffic, the dutiful people of Aizawl refrain from honking. This practice is worth appreciating and may be adopted by people in other cities too,” Konvind said while addressing a convocation ceremony at Mizoram University near Aizawl.
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He said that the natural beauty of the state is matched by the human excellence shown by the people of the state.
The environment in Mizoram as well as the other Northeastern states needs to be preserved with care, he said.
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“We must adopt practices which are beneficial not only to us but also to nature,” he said.
Kovind also lauded the people of Mizoram along with the people of Sikkim and Tripura for generating the least plastic waste as per a study by NITI Aayog.
“This is a good example of responsible
consumption and production which our young students will further strengthen,” he said.
With the second-highest literacy levels in the country, Mizoram is a truly modern state ready to take off for higher achievements, the President added.
Mizoram’s capital Aizawl is known to be the first and only city in the country to be complete “horn free” without any government policy or regulation.
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This smart traffic management is a people’s initiative as every law-abiding and disciplined commuter follows self-imposed road discipline to avoid traffic snarls in this congested city where roads are narrow.
Everyone here refrains from unnecessary honking and doesn’t overtake or break the long queue of vehicles on serpentine roads.
Cars would stick to the left of their lane and the two-wheelers to their right and no one would ply or cross the empty road for vehicles coming from the opposite.
One hardly hears horns even in traffic jams as honking is considered rude here.
To manage traffic congestion, the government has also introduced a rule where all vehicles are off the road once a week depending on the last digit on their number plate.
There are more than 2 lakh registered vehicles in the Aizawl district, of which over 70 per cent are in Aizawl city, according to the state transport department.
The government also follows a “no tolerance week” mostly in December every year during which vehicles with no complete documents were fined.