Drive to clear vehicles abandoned on city roads continues

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Special teams formed by the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) have so far identified at least 1,412 abandoned junk vehicles that have been encroaching upon roads and footpaths in the city, a senior traffic police said on Wednesday.

Joint Commissioner of Police, Traffic, Bengaluru, had directed the jurisdictional traffic police stations to ensure that such vehicles are not found on the roads, or even in front of the police stations and government offices.

"If a vehicle is found abandoned on the street or the road for a long time, the owner will be served a notice, and if there is no response, the vehicle will be seized and then auctioned," said the Joint Commissioner.

The action was taken following complaints from the residents about abandoned vehicles causing inconvenience to the road users on various roads and footpaths in Bengaluru.

Such vehicles also cause obstruction to traffic and result in reduced road capacity.

Apart from these, there are vehicles seized by the police, and those involved in accidents were found abandoned in front of the police stations and government offices.

They occupy the road space and also turn into eyesores. Previously, the then Joint Commissioner of Bengaluru Traffic, BR Ravikanthe Gowda along with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) had drafted a policy to dispose of abandoned vehicles on the streets.

Meanwhile taking up a drive to remove such vehicles, the BTP personnel in all 50 traffic police stations limits, have started booking the owners of such vehicles.

According to a senior official, the drive began from February 1 and so far the personnel have identified 1,412 abandoned vehicles, out of which 918 vehicles have been disposed of after tracing the owners.