Impounded vehicles clog roads

A slow moving traffic was reported near Jogeshwari-Andheri on the Western Express Highway (WEH), af ter over 25,000 vehicles were impounded by Mumbai Police in a crackdown on motorists since Sunday.

A Khar resident had expressed his ire on social media af ter his scooter was wrongfully impounded on June 29, when he had gone to buy medicine within the permitted radius.

In the af termath of the extensive checks conducted across the city in a crackdown on errant motorists who ventured outside the permitted 2km radius for essentials, their impounded vehicles clogged the streets of Mumbai, leading to unwanted congestion. A Twitter user, who shared a video of the spot, told the FPJ, "Over two lanes were taken up by the impounded vehicles, while police also stood beyond them, adding to the woes. With nakabandis, there were hardly two lanes for the four-wheelers and one narrow lane for the two-wheelers."

The social media was rife with photos and videos of the congestion caused due to these vehicles, which were double parked along the WEH on the Jogeshwari-Andheri stretch. This also resulted in a backlash on Mumbai Police's action and many accused them of high handedness. Wednesday witnessed lesser checkpoints and nakabandis in the city, as there were comparatively fewer vehicles on the street. When contacted the traffic police for figures of vehicles impounded, the official said the figures were low when compared to the preceding days crackdown numbers, but were yet to be collated. On Wednesday, Ryan Simoes, 37, a resident of Khar Danda posted a video on social media, where he expressed his ire regarding the impounding of vehicles and said that his scooter was impounded on June 29 when he had gone out to buy medicines. In the video Simoes said, he was intercepted by police when he was well within the 2km radius and was out to buy cough syrup.