Mumbai Police rolls back order on colour-coding of vehicles

Mumbai Police chief Hemant Nagrale introduced the order to keep a check on motorists coming out on roads for casual or trivial reasons amid the statewide lockdown.

Mumbai Police has withdrawn its decision of compulsory colour-coding for the vehicles plying in the city during the lockdown. As per people aware of the matter, the decision caused confusion and it did not serve the intended purpose, therefore the move was cancelled on Friday night.

File photo: Mumbai Police chief Hemant Nagrale. (Bachchan Kumar/ Hindustan Times)

On Thursday alone the police had booked at least 57 motorists for flouting colour-code norms.

Deputy commissioner of police (operation) Chaitanya Siriprolu on Friday night issued an order to all police stations in-charges across Mumbai, regional controls rooms, zonal police and other police units, declaring that the “colour code” order was cancelled. He instructed all police units not to take action against motorists for plying without colour-coded stickers.

Director-General of Police, Sanjay Pandey, was also not happy with the mandatory colour-coding of vehicles for plying in Mumbai, the people cited above said.

On April 17, Mumbai Police chief Hemant Nagrale introduced the new requirement of colour-coding of vehicles to keep a check on motorists coming out on roads for casual or trivial reasons and causing traffic jams amid the statewide lockdown.

He issued the order after the entry-exit points at Dahisar, Mulund and Vashi, and some other parts of the city on severe traffic jams during the morning rush hour on April 17. The traffic jam had interrupted movements of ambulances and other essential service vehicles. Hence, to impose stricter restrictions on the movement of non-essential vehicles Nagrale introduced colour-coding.