Anti-encroachment drive: Action on illegally parked cars sees no acceleration

Experts said parking on roadsides was the biggest cause of congestion on Delhi’s roads and turning a blind eye to that would render the ongoing drive futile.

Action to remove abandoned and illegally parked cars remains stuck in first gear as even seven days after an anti-encroachment special task force launched a drive to clear the city’s roads of these, only 750 such vehicles have been seized.

Vehicles parked on the both sides of Aurobindo Marg cause a huge traffic jam, in New Delhi. (Burhaan Kinu/HT File Photo)

Of these 750 vehicles seized till Friday, at least 10% were found abandoned, data from the three municipalities (east, north, and south Delhi municipal corporations) showed. Since the drive began on April 28, less than 100 vehicles have been seized daily on average by the civic agencies .

The Delhi traffic police said that even on a regular day, their officials take action against 300 vehicles for parking on roadsides.

The tepid outcome of the drive against vehicular encroachment accompanied similarly uninspiring results in attempts to remove roadside and pavement squatters who returned without any fear of follow-up action.

On Friday, HT visited two of the most clogged arterial roads in the city, Vikas Marg in east Delhi and Sri Aurobindo Marg in south Delhi, and found that the primary reason for traffic bottlenecks was vehicles parked on roadsides eating into half the motorable space. This was after the task force had conducted a drive against illegal parking at Sri Aurobindo Marg on Wednesday.

Experts said parking on roadsides was the biggest cause of congestion on Delhi’s roads and turning a blind eye to that would render the ongoing drive futile.

Praveen Patnaik, an urban planner from the Centre for Transport and Road Engineering in IIT Delhi, said strict action against illegally parked vehicles would solve half of the city’s congestion problem.

“You will remove hawkers; they will come back, because their livelihood depends on it. However, stringent and continued action against vehicles parked on roadsides will go a long way in clearing bottlenecks from several arterial roads,” Patnaik said.

Justifying this slow action, a south corporation official said seizing or fining these illegally parked vehicles was not the only function that the municipal bodies need to perform during the ongoing drive.

“The drive includes removing of squatters, illegal constructions and checking vending licences, along with impounding vehicles. We have limited resources to perform these multiple tasks,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.

He said the traffic police, responsible for checking and fining violators in the city, need to perform their duty of getting rid of such vehicles on a daily basis.

Ruchika Katyal, deputy commissioner of the City Sadar-Paharganj zone of the north corporation, said lifting impounded vehicles and taking these to warehouses was a cumbersome process.

The traffic police, also a part of the task force, however said full cooperation — with personnel and machinery — was being given for the drive.

“The action is being undertaken on the directions of the civic agencies. In fact, even the fines that are being levied on violators are as per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, and not the Motor Vehicles Act. Here, we are just implementing orders and extending our resources,” said Garima Bhatnagar, joint commissioner of police (traffic).