The traffic police and the BBMP are all set to remove abandoned vehicles from Bengaluru roads and footpaths.
This comes in the wake of Chief Minister S R Bommai directing the BBMP to remove obstructions to pedestrian movement.
BBMP Commissioner Gaurav Gupta says civic officials and the police will go all out and trace owners of such vehicles.
The team has attended a training session in which they were briefed on the processes to be followed while handling these vehicles.
“If the vehicle owners are traced, they will be asked to pay a fine of Rs 500 or Rs 1,000. If there are no claimants, the vehicles will be auctioned off and the proceeds will go to the BBMP,” says B R Ravikanthe Gowda, joint commissioner of police (traffic).
Several old cars, two-wheelers, autos and trucks are abandoned across Bengaluru. They rust away, and place hurdles in the paths of pedestrains.
“We will send notices to the owners. If we get no response within seven days, the BBMP will issue a public notice and auction the vehicles after 15 days,” says Ravikanthe Gowda.
Citizens can report abandoned vehicles to the police, says Kuldeep Kumar Jain, deputy commissioner of police (west, traffic).
“We will collect details such as the make, registration number, engine number, and chassis number, and assess the condition of the vehicle before we take further action,” he says.
Manoj Jain, special commissioner (projects), BBMP, says a team has been gearing up for eight months to remove abandoned vehicles. “The work on this will start in a week. Chief engineers and joint engineers will be working with the jurisdictional police station to initiate the process,” he says.
Legal angle
Kamal Pant, city police commissioner, says unclaimed vehicles in public places have always been a problem. “If we want to clear these vehicles, we have to initiate criminal proceedings. This involves doing a panchnama of the vehicle and intimating the courts. So we suggested to the BBMP they could remove any encroachment on BBMP property, temporary or permanent. This can be done under the Civil Procedure Code,” he told Metrolife.
Auctions online
Unclaimed vehicles will be auctioned with help from the government-run e-auction agency MSTC, with which the BBMP has entered into an agreement.
“This is an online process which also means that it is free of any sort of corruption,” an official told Metrolife.
The process should be completed within 30 days.
Each zone will open separate bank accounts to process the business related to the disposal of abandoned vehicles, he says.
Want a vehicle cleared?
If you want to report an abandoned vehicle in a public place, take a picture, indicate location and tag @BlrCityPolice, @jointcptraffic and
@BlrCityPolice on Twitter.