Vehicle owners in Bengaluru could soon face much stricter penalties for parking in no-parking zones or leaving their cars abandoned on roadsides. In a significant move to tackle the city's chronic traffic woes, the Bengaluru Traffic Police and the five civic corporations under the Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) are gearing up to jointly restart a major towing campaign.
Illegal Parking Halts Civic Work, Spurs Action
The push for stricter enforcement gained urgency after a recent incident highlighted a direct impact on civic infrastructure. During road-asphalting work in the South city corporation zone, contractors were forced to leave a stretch of road unpaved because an abandoned vehicle was parked there. Officials stated that despite prior notices asking residents to clear the roads, some vehicles remained, disrupting the essential work.
This event sparked fresh discussions on the urgent need for a robust system to penalize illegal parking, which is cited as a major contributor to traffic congestion and obstruction of public works across the city.
Joint Plan: Corporations Tow, Police Fine
Under the proposed collaborative model, the five GBA corporations will provide the necessary resources—towing vehicles, machinery, and manpower. The traffic police will take charge of the on-ground enforcement and issue fines for the violations.
The revenue generated from these fines will be shared with the corporations. This income is intended to help the civic bodies maintain their towing fleets and cover operational costs, creating a self-sustaining cycle for the enforcement drive. Each corporation has initially rented two towing vehicles, with plans to scale up the operation across their jurisdictions.
Creating Parking Space Before the Crackdown
While the initial plan was to begin strict enforcement in early January, the commissioners have decided on a more pragmatic approach. They aim to first identify and create additional legal parking spaces for residents before launching a full-scale crackdown. This step is seen as crucial to providing alternatives and ensuring the drive's fairness and effectiveness.
Lokhande Snehal, additional commissioner (development) for the East corporation, emphasized the dual strategy. "Illegal parking is causing traffic congestion and chaos on the city's streets, and towing is necessary to address this," she said. "At the same time, we are actively exploring ways to create more parking spaces so that vehicles are not parked indiscriminately."
Commissioners from the North, West, and Central corporations have echoed similar plans to curb illegal parking and systematize parking in their areas.
GBA chief Maheshwar Rao underscored the authority's resolve, pointing out the overwhelming number of vehicles on the roads. He confirmed that the GBA holds the power to declare no-parking zones, a power delegated to the corporation commissioners. "We want to now ensure this is implemented at the earliest," Rao stated, adding that corporations are already in the process of notifying designated parking spaces to facilitate adequate parking for citizens.
