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Busy Kalyan roads cleared of old, abandoned vehicles
After taking action on the hawker menace on skywalks and giving an ultimatum of seven days to shopkeepers to free footpaths, Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation
After taking action on the hawker menace on skywalks and giving an ultimatum of seven days to shopkeepers to free footpaths, Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has initiated action against abandoned and scrap vehicles lying on the busy roads of Kalyan.
KDMC and traffic police jointly initiated a special drive against vehicles left lying on the road side for months and those which are parked on road outside the garages for repair works.
“There are several abandoned and scrap vehicles in Kalyan and Dombivli which leads to traffic congestion across the city. It also mars the beauty of the area,” said Vijay Suryavanshi, commissioner, KDMC.
The civic body has given three cranes and five dumpers to the traffic department.
Suryavanshi said, “Soon, the process for auctioning the vehicles will be carried out following proper procedures.”
Earlier this month when chief minister Uddhav Thackeray visited Kalyan, he had urged officials to take up a drive against abandoned and scrapped vehicles, which has been congesting the roads.
After Suryavanshi took over as the civic commissioner on February 20, he visited the skywalks in Kalyan and Dombivli. He suspended three officials for failing to act against the hawker menace.
Later in a meeting with civic officials, he asked them to ask shopkeepers at Kalyan and Dombivli to keep the footpaths free from encroachments. He has given seven days to shopkeepers to clear public spaces, else the civic body will forcefully remove the encroachments.
Garages along the road use space on the road to park vehicles for repair work. The vehicles are parked for weeks sometimes. “The vehicles add to congestion if there is a traffic jam. Motorists will get more space on the road if they are removed,” said Sukhdev Patil, senior police inspector, Kalyan (West) unit.
In Kalyan (West), the traffic police served notices to 53 vehicle owners on Tuesday, a day before the drive was carried out on Santoshi Mata road in Kalyan (West).
As per the traffic police, few of them took away the vehicles after the notice was served.
The traffic police along with KDMC team removed 17 two-wheelers and eight four-wheelers on the Santoshi Mata road.
On the Patripool-Tata power house stretch, which is one the most congested stretch in Kalyan, the team of traffic police and KDMC managed to remove one four-wheeler, one autorickshaw and 19 two-wheelers on the first day of the drive. The traffic department had served notices to 69 vehicle owners.
“The stretch has many garages and many vehicles were parked along the road. On the day of the drive, many garage owners had cleared the road of vehicles. There were some which were still parked on the road and that we lifted them using a crane,” said Surendra Shirsat, senior traffic police inspector, Kalyan (East) unit.
The vehicles were taken in dumpers to a plot at Adharwadi which belongs to the traffic department. “We checked if the owner is around before lifting the vehicle. We fined some of the vehicle owners and gave them a warning,” added Shirsat.
A total of ₹20,000 was collected by the traffic police. KDMC officials said the drive will continue throughout the week. “We also have to ensure that the drive does not affect traffic movement. There was no major disruption on Wednesday,” said Patil.
The traffic police said that a similar drive will be undertaken in Dombivli from Thursday.
“Dombivli is very congested. The civic body should continue the drive on all major roads of the Kalyan Dombivli regularly ,” said Sandeep Rane, 38, a resident of Dombivli.
