Clicking pictures of illegally parked cars can get you rewards, says Nitin Gadkari

Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday asked citizens to click picture of wrongly parked cars and send to authorities. And to encourage people, Gadkari also announced that the person who will send the pictures will be rewarded a 10 per cent share from Rs 500 fine imposed on the owner of the vehicle in question.

Gadkari said he felt "ashamed" that absence of parking lots outside his own Ministry forced "ambassadors" and "big people" to park on road blocking the way to Parliament.

"In my Motor Vehicle Act, I am going to add one law (provision). Any car on road, you just take the photo on your mobile and send it to the department concerned or Police. There will be Rs 500 fine and 10 per cent will go to the complainant," Gadkari said.

Gadkari during the laying of foundation stone for his own Ministry's automate parking had said in May 2016 that he felt "ashamed" that his own ministry had to wait nine months to get approvals for a 'simple automated parking lot'.

Transport Bhawan will be the first government building to have an automated multi level car parking facility in its premises at a cost of about Rs 9 crore.
The automated parking lot project is being undertaken by NHIDCL. The facility will comprise ground plus seven floors.

Rejecting the battery swapping policy proposed by Niti Aayog to promote advanced electric mobility in the country, Gadkari said that it is not viable in India. 

Niti Aayog has in its report come out in favour of standardised, smart and swappable batteries with lease and/or pay-per-use business models. Strengthening its case, the report stated that the accelerated adoption of electric and shared vehicles could save $60 billion in diesel and petrol cost and cut down as much as 1 giga tonne of carbon emissions for India by 2030.

"The battery swapping policy I feel is not appropriate for the country because it is a very difficult thing. That is not going to be possible in the country,'' the Union minister said. 

Given the high levels of pollution in Delhi and other places, electric vehicles for public transport besides vehicles on biofuel are the need of the hour and the government is working on charging infrastructure, the minister said.

(With inputs from PTI)