Vehicle Honking Rules and Fines DO and DO NOT in Mumbai

Peep Peep, Pom Pom, NO NO... A vehicle horn is given to be used with some discipline, But vehicle honking is a menace in Mumbai. Many countries outside India has great civic sense when it comes to honking, Yet when it comes to Mumbai and other cities of India, Till date it has not respected the traffic rules that are laid down related honking. Traffic department of Mumbai has taken this as their next task to save city from Noise pollution and fine all those nuisance creators. Unwanted honking is already restricted as per 1989’s Motor vehicle Act under section 134(1) and late this week traffic cops and RTO has been alerted to take strict actions against people creating such menace with their varieties of honk installed on their vehicles like bikes, cars and others too. Below are some of the important rules to be followed and points to be considered as Honking DO’s and DONT guidelines in Mumbai city.

Vehicle Road Honking
Vehicle Road Honking

Vehicle Honking DO

  • Use it when needs to be alerted in case of emergency situations like before having a sudden brakes approaching an incident. This can be to a vehicle or a pedestrian.
  • To alert another vehicle while overtaking or warning in similar situations which is perfectly OK.
  • In situations like another vehicle not following proper rules and obstructing view or way for other vehicle by parking or standing still on road side.
  • Use common sense when on traffic signals and jams, Just by honking hard and following other honkers, Neither signals will change nor the vehicle will move if stuck in jam. Why Simply Make Fool of Ourselves, Right ?

Vehicle Honking DO NOT

  • As per rules, writing “HORN OK PLEASE” is illegal, You need to remove that from your vehicle if already have (Specially on Trucks), Because Horn is actually not OK from now.
  • If you are caught with a non-standard sounding horn in your car or bike or any other commercial / non-commercial vehicle plying on road, You will be fined. Musical and multi-tuned fancy horns will not be tolerated as it crosses the noise pollution limits and creates menace. So if you have such, install and replace your horns by installing the standard allowed horns from an authorized vehicle shop which has sound at permissible limits.
  • Do not put up your horns at NO HONKING zones and sign boards like hospitals etc, You might be stopped and can be held liable giving fine.
  • Traffic cop has keen eye on those poor drivers (i mean with driving skills) who learned driving at by lanes (Mumbai Gulli) and didn’t had any formal training. Learning in gullies of Mumbai is not an offence, But most of the time that approach of learning has lapse of understanding some important driving rules, skills and discipline and safety notes. These are the people breaking signals, not having proper driving license and honks unnecessarily at signals and traffic jams. According to me, a zero tolerance policy should be applied to such idiots of road.
  • To conclude, it is an offence to honk unnecessarily.


It is my responsibility as a city blogger to educate, inform our dear citizens and hope we all get together adhering policies, rules and join hands with traffic police department to make a better city and be a healthy, educated citizen with civic senses to set an example for other cities of India. I will also appeal to all motor training department to educate their customers and make a serious note teaching related to honking rules and their importance in city.

Fine of Rs.500 (Approx USD $8) is what one needs to give to traffic department every time you break the rules in Mumbai



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Greetings, I am Deven, the founder of Mumbai77. With immense passion, I have dedicated my full-time efforts to continuously learn and update important information about Mumbai city. Currently, I am a full-time blogger residing in Mumbai. Since its establishment on July 7, 2007, Mumbai77 has attracted millions of pageviews. Our website aims to provide valuable information, including my personal reviews and experiences, to assist individuals worldwide in their search for updated information about Mumbai city.

One Reply to “Vehicle Honking Rules and Fines DO and DO NOT in Mumbai”

  1. What about keeping housing societies as silent zones with no honking as it disturbs the old ,sick and ones doing thier work office or domestic.

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