Ludhiana: After six years, Police Lines auctions 350 impounded vehicles

Scrap dealers begin clearing drive; 4,500 vehicles still lie abandoned outside police stations and posts across the city; the civic body had recently asked the police to get rid of such vehicles occupying public places

The Ludhiana Police Lines, long resembling a graveyard of rusting vehicles, began clearing out on Tuesday as nearly 350 impounded vehicles were auctioned by the police commissionerate. Scrap dealers started removing the vehicles as they towed them away, officials said.

Scrap dealers taking away vehicles and their parts dumped in Police Lines on Tuesday. (Manish/HT)

For over six years, battered trucks, dented cars, abandoned scooters and autorickshaws with rust-eaten frames had cluttered the premises — silent relics of traffic violations and criminal cases. Time had reduced many of them into heaps of scrap, giving the Police Lines the appearance of a dumping yard. The clear-out, officials said, marks the beginning of a larger drive.

Police commissioner Swapan Sharma called the move “long overdue.” “These vehicles were lying here for years, occupying space and turning into waste. We followed due process and auctioned them off. The removal has freed up significant space, and the process to clear vehicles dumped outside police stations and posts is already underway,” he said.

Officials estimate more than 4,500 vehicles still lie abandoned outside police stations and posts across the city, clogging streets and inconveniencing commuters. The commissionerate has begun a systematic effort to auction these too. One reason so many impounded vehicles lie unclaimed, officials explained, is that owners either lack the necessary documents, consider their vehicles too old and damaged to recover, or have already taken insurance claims. As a result, the rusting carcasses of vehicles pile up over the years.

The civic body had been raising red flags for some time. Earlier, Mayor Inderjit Kaur had written to police commissioner Sharma, urging immediate clearance of impounded vehicles from roadside spaces and civic land. “Abandoned vehicles block traffic and contribute to waterlogging, which can cause mosquito breeding and spread vector-borne diseases,” she warned. Sites outside Basti Jodhewal police station and division number 5 police station were specifically flagged as trouble spots.

City residents, too, had long complained about traffic bottlenecks and eyesores created by piles of wrecked vehicles left to rot in public view.