BMC asked to provide space for abandoned, scrap vehicles

Traffic police seek space to dump about 10K vehicles to decongest city roads

The Mumbai Traffic Police have written to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to provide them spaces wherever available within the city to park abandoned and scrap vehicles which are parked across the city. The police demanded spaces that can accommodate at least 10,000 abandoned vehicles in a bid to decongest streets, lanes and roads of the city.

Speaking on the subject, Joint Commissioner of Police (traffic) Yashasvi Yadav said, "There are thousands of vehicles which are lying abandoned on the roads across the city. These vehicles are simply occupying the space on the roads and are posing parking issues as well. We have requested BMC to provide us spaces to park abandoned vehicles. They can provide us whichever spaces that are available with them so that we can put those abandoned vehicles there and decongest the streets and roads. We want space to accommodate at least 10,000 vehicles."

In June 2019, around 350 abandoned vehicles that had been lying and rotting within the premises of 14 traffic police divisions across the city were auctioned by the Mumbai Traffic Police for more than Rs 12 lakh.

The auction was conducted online on the website of the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC). The auctioned vehicles included several cars, motorcycles and autorickshaws that had been lying abandoned. In May 2019, 322 abandoned vehicles were auctioned, and had fetched in Rs 15.01 lakh.

"Abandoned and scrap vehicles which are towed and kept at traffic chowkies occupy a lot of space and had been rotting for past several years. The sale of these vehicles free up space at traffic divisions to park new vehicles which are abandoned," a traffic police officer said. "We could not auction abandoned vehicles last year due to COVID-19. Auctioning of abandoned vehicles involves a lengthy process; so if BMC provides us space, we can dump them there and free roads in the city," said another traffic police officer.