BHUBANESWAR: Police on Wednesday launched a drive against illegal parking in the City. Additional DCP Traffic Amaresh Panda said the drive was launched to check illegal parking in crowded areas and important stretches in the City.
He said police have started collecting fines from commuters including auto-rickshaw drivers who park their vehicles illegally as it affects the movement of traffic.
The violators are being fined Rs 500 in addition to charges required for towing their vehicles. A drone will soon be deployed in the City to check the practice, said, police officials. BMC has set up 79 designated parking places in the City and motorists parking their vehicles beyond these areas will be fined.
Panda said no parking signs have been put up at 50 locations across the City including near Fortune Tower and Acharya Vihar. He said drivers parking cranes under the Rasulgarh flyover were directed to remove their vehicles. “We have also approached NHAI and requested them to develop parking spots under the flyover,” the officer said. He stated that the Traffic police are using equipment like wheel lock to lock vehicles found parked illegally.
Twin City Commissioner of Police Sudhansu Sarangi has called for a meeting of Commissionerate Police, BMC, BDA, RTO, Works Department and BSCL on September 6 to discuss the issue of illegal parking in the City.
Meanwhile, Traffic police collected Rs 13,500 as fine from 27 violators on Tuesday for committing various offences like riding without a helmet, triple riding, dangerous overtaking, etc on the stretch between Rabindra Mandap and Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA). All the violators were detected by the drone deployed by the Commissionerate Police.
Commissionerate Police has one Traffic police station at AG Square and a Traffic unit in Chandrasekharpur. Sources said police have identified a piece of land at Patrapada to set up City’s second full-fledged Traffic police station to conduct robust enforcement activities.