Tuesday, 01 August 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Following the success of the pilot project of the traffic directorate in Dehradun district to minimise traffic congestion using crane services, the project will be launched soon in nine districts of the State too, said the director of traffic directorate Mukhtar Mohsin. He said that the number of challans issued this year for parking in the no-parking zone has increased by 89 per cent in Dehradun.
The city saw this hike after the traffic directorate started using crane services in January to tow vehicles parked in no-parking zones in nine routes to tackle increasing trafffic irregularities. These nine routes and areas marked for the crane service are IT Park- Canal Road, Sahastradhara- Raipur, Ballupur- Balliwala- Premnagar Road, Kargi- Ajabpur flyover, ISBT- Saharanpur- Railway Station Road, Clock Tower- Rajpur Road, Clock Tower- Chakrata Road, Mussoorie city area and Rishikesh city area.
Considering the illicit parking practice in Dehradun, the traffic directorate sent a proposal to the State government last year regarding providing crane services to lift the vehicles parked in no-parking zones on nine routes in the district. The service was commenced in public-private partnership (PPP) mode in January after the government’s approval.
In the years 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, the authorities towed 672, 8,334, 2,513 and 6,470 vehicles, as per the official data. In the year 2022, 13,367 vehicles were towed but since the commencement of crane services this year, authorities have towed 8,342 till June. From January to March, a total of 2,878 vehicles were towed which generated revenue of over Rs 23 lakh. From April to June, authorities issued challans to the operators of 5,464 vehicles and collected a fine of over Rs 30 lakh.
There has been an increase of 89 per cent in the number of challans as compared to before the commencement of the operation of cranes on PPP mode, as per Moshin. He has also appealed to the people to cooperate with the police by not parking vehicles in no-parking zones to improve traffic management in their respective cities. Those who fail to comply with the rules will have to pay hefty fines after their vehicle gets towed by the police, he added.
