The Gandhinagar police have finally decided to purchase a towing van of their own in the wake of increasing traffic related problems on the roads.
The Gandhinagar police have finally decided to purchase a towing van of their own in the wake of increasing traffic related problems on the roads. Within two days of its operation, more than 25 vehicles were towed away. The crane went into service from September 1.
According to the officials, this is just a part of the plan and more vehicles and other machinery will be added to aid the towing activity. In 2005, the Gandhinagar traffic department hired two towing cranes.
However, the experiment didn't yield any result due to high rental and maintenance cost. According to a traffic official, fines collected from vehicle owners was almost half of the daily rental of Rs1,500, which is why the machines became non-operational within one month.
Once the towing again became operational, 11 vehicles including a car were detained on the first day. "We collected Rs1,200 in fines on Thursday. We want to first warn people and that's why we didn't lift too many vehicles on the Day One of the operation," said Rajendrasinh, traffic official at Sector 33 police station.
The charges for towing are double the fine for wrong parking. Thus, if a two-wheeler is found parked wrongly, the vehicle owner will be fined Rs50 on the spot, whereas if the vehicle is towed away, then the owner has to pay Rs100.
The same is the case with four-wheelers, where the owner has to pay Rs100 for being fined on the spot and Rs 200 if the vehicle is towed away.
Also, for the first time Gandhinagar traffic cops will be equipped with car wheel locks. According to officials, the police station will receive 8 to 10 such locks within a few days.
"It's better to lock the four-wheeler than tow it away. It saves ours as well as the owner's energy and time," said Rajendrasinh.
During the first two days, the towing crane targeted vehicles parked on open roads near public places including Pathik Ashram, banks, civil hospital and major roads.
Gandhinagar police say the absence of such towing cranes made the commuters careless and they would park their vehicles on the road in spite of the space allotted for parking.
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