BTP set to deal with haphazard parkings, but concerned with increasing number of vehicles

Hameed Ashraf | NT

Bengaluru: Following complaints of haphazard parking of vehicles, the Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) in South Division is all set to conduct a special drive to curb illegal and careless parking of vehicles on footpath and side of the roads causing inconvenience to motorists and pedestrians alike.

Speaking to News Trail, the traffic police said that over 75 roads have been identified under the jurisdiction of 12 police stations of the South division and a special drive will be conducted here soon.

"It has been decided to carry out a special drive on a trial basis in view of the fact that many complaints were heard during the Janaspandana program about parking on the road," a senior official said.

The police further hinted to revive the act of towing illegally parked vehicles in such areas such as Adugodi, Madiwala, Mico Layout, Hulimavu, Bellandur, HSR Layout, Electronic City, Basavanagudi, Jayanagar, Banashankari, KS Layout and Talaghattapura traffic police stations.

This measure is being implemented in view of the fact that parking problems have led to severe traffic problems.

"Even parking a single vehicle on the outer ring road creates heavy traffic. We will check the public response and traffic on the roads and take action on priority. We are primarily focusing on parking issues such as roadside parking and footpath parking," officials said.

Vehicles parked on roads will be impounded and offenders will have to pay fines in court, he added.

Rising number of vehicles in the city

However it is also worth noting that the traffic problem has increased due to lack of dedicated space for parking in Bengaluru where everyday almost 2,000 vehicles are added to the city roads.

The vehicle count in the city has already crossed over one crore mark while Karnataka has 3.1 crore registered vehicles as on March 2024, the data shared by the Regional Transport Office (RTO) showed.

Only in March alone, as many as 1.7 lakh vehicles were registered across the state. According to the data, about 1,300 twowheelers and 500 cars are added to Bengaluru roads everyday.

In the first three months of this year, 78 lakh twowheelers, 23.9 lakh cars, 1.2 lakh buses, 2.9 lakh taxis and 3.2 lakh auto rickshaws were registered, the RTO data said.