Illegally Parked Vehicles Will Be Towed at Vehicle Owner’s Expenses in City Soon
Mangaluru: Good news- City roads to become ‘no parking’ zones unless declared otherwise. Until now motorists who knowingly park their vehicles in unauthorized parking zones would get away by paying a mere Rs 100 fine, which is less than a bottle of beer -not anymore! As a New Year 2019 gift to traffic violators, the Mangaluru City Traffic police will start towing vehicles parked illegally. Not only will the vehicles be towed to the police station, the violator is liable for a hefty fine- Rs 1100 fine for four-wheelers, and Rs 750 for two-wheelers, which includes Rs 100 parking violation fine. Sounds great, at least this would teach motorists not to park their vehicles anywhere they want. This initiative should have been implemented by the traffic police long ago, but anyways, as they say, ‘Better Late Than Never’, let’s hope the Towing idea by the police will serve the purpose.
This decision was briefed to the media during the Police Commissioner’s Phone-In Programme on Friday. The Traffic Police have proposed to declare roads in Mangaluru as ‘no parking’ zones and tow away vehicles parked illegally. Four vehicles to be deployed soon to tow away those parked illegally. This is some good news for road users and pedestrians but not for those who carelessly park their vehicles as roads soon will become “no parking” zones unless specifically earmarked either by the Mangaluru City Corporation or the Traffic Police as “parking zone”.
More worse for those parking vehicles at non-specified zones would be the deployment of towing vehicles — one each for four traffic police stations — to tow away illegally parked vehicles. The vehicle owner or driver would have to shell out Rs 1,100 for a four-wheeler and Rs 750 for a two-wheeler to get the vehicle released. This was revealed by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Traffic) Uma Prashanth, who also said that no amount of widening of roads had helped solve traffic chaos. This was primarily because the widened portion of roads was being used to park vehicles now. She further said, “While no bids were placed during the first round of the tender called in for, but recently a contractor had come forward during the second bidding round, and we will be getting the towing vehicles soon once the tender procedure is finalized-probably we are looking at by the end of this month or in January 2019”.
If you look around Mangaluru, on all the widened road done recently for the easy movement of traffic, but unfortunately the side portion of these roads are taken by illegally parked vehicles. So what good is to have the road widened, if it doesn’t serve the needed purpose. Finally, with so many complaints pouring into the police department regarding illegal parking of vehicles, the traffic police have taken this towing decision. Yet another caller during the phone-in programme had, complained saying, “What’s the use of a smart city when the blockage on the footpath is not resolved yet. There are constant trucks and also mini-vans parked on the footpath selling fish along the stretch of S L Mathias Road near Casa Grande apartments, and also in many other areas in the City. While many residents have given a portion of their land for the footpath, it didn’t help a large number of encroachment were still persistent”. Another complained that vehicles are parked on either side of the lane leading to Prajna Counselling Centre.
No more locking of illegal parked vehicles by police……
Meanwhile , Rajavarma Ballal-President of Canara Bus Owners’ Association , who was present at the phone-in programme suggested to police officers that lack of strict guidelines in leasing out buses was the primary reason why there was violations on the part of the leaseholders and their workers He urged police to hold talks with the RTO and rectify the issue . A woman from Bondel complained that the conductor of a particular shuttle bus operating between State Bank and Kateel was highly abusive when passengers demanded tickets. Responding to this, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) Hanumantharaya assured her of strict action and later directed the police inspector concerned to warn the particular conductor. DCP also wondered why the conductors did not have name badges so that it would be easy for the passengers to identify the conductor at fault.
…….they will be TOWED!
Responding to a caller to regulate parking of vehicles and vehicular movement at Mangaladevi Junction, Ms. Prashanth said that this would be attended to. Meanwhile, ACP Manjunath Shetty told media that the bus shelter at Mangaladevi Junction would be shifted about 100 m further so that buses parked there did not obstruct vehicular movement. Dakshina Kannada Bus Owners Association president Dilraj Alva present during the phone-in programme also said that Mangaluru Ramakrishna Mission has taken the initiative to shift the bus shelter as the road ahead is wide and can accommodate city buses.