Centralised system to make it easier to track towed cars in Gurugram
Each time a vehicle is towed away, a constable takes a photo on his smartphone and sends it to the traffic control room on Whatsapp. Along with the photo, the location from where it was found and where it is being taken is also sent. Owners can call the traffic control room on 9213020404, to know where the vehicle has been taken.
Tracking of vehicles that have been towed away by the police, due to parking in undesignated spots in Gurugram, has become easier, with the introduction of a centralised process and real time data for the same.
The deputy commissioner of police (DCP), Himanshu Garg, said that offenders cannot get away without paying the penalty of Rs 600, as the details will be entered online. “We have also fixed designated parking lots where vehicles towed away from a particular area would be parked, making it easier for the public,” he said.
Starting last week, each time a vehicle is towed away, a constable takes a photo on his smartphone and sends it to the traffic control room on Whatsapp.
Along with the photo, the location from where it was found and where it is being taken is also sent. Owners can call the traffic control room on 9213020404, to know where the vehicle has been taken.
Although a photo of the vehicle used to be taken earlier, there was no centralised system or an official channel for a vehicle owner to know where his/her vehicle had been towed.
Garg said that the cranes were operated by private contractors under an agreement with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and they had received many complaints about the operation, prompting them to centralise the process.
On Tuesday evening, in the half hour that an HT team spent in the parking of Sector 51 police station, one of the designated parking spaces were vehicles being towed away are parked, six cars were towed from Good Earth Mall, Bani Square Park, Park Hospital and Arcadia Market.
Five of the people whose cars were towed away told HT that they did not know about the control room number and had to make many enquiries to find out where their vehicle had been taken.
Thirty-seven-year-old Varun, who had parked his grey Honda City outside Bani Square Park, said he asked vendors in the vicinity to ascertain what had happened to his vehicle. “A ‘paanwala’ at the location told me that it was taken to the police station in Sector 51,” he added.
Lucky, a traffic constable, who was present in the police station, said that senior officers had told them to inform vendors of nearby stalls or handcarts about where the vehicle was being towed to.
When asked how the police plan to popularise the number, the DCP, said, “We will make the control room number available on our website and list it as a helpline number for tracking towed vehicles.”
Lucky said that an offender, who had approached him to reclaim his Volkswagen Polo, had asked him to help him out as his brother was a police officer too, but he denied it.
“Earlier, there was a lot of pressure to let go of the vehicles, but now, the system has been improved,” he said.
Some of the offenders, including women, complained about the lack of parking facilities in the city. A 37-year-old woman, whose red sedan was towed from Arcadia Market, said, “I had parked once in the car park of Arcadia Market, but it was shady and there were many anti-social elements in the parking lot.”