Beware citizens! Parking your vehicle in ‘no parking’ area will cost you Rs 760 for two-wheeler, and Rs 1,020 for four-wheeler from Sunday as the Traffic Branch of Nagpur police will start towing vehicles parked in ‘no parking’ areas. The decision was taken by the officials of Nagpur police and Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) as unauthorised parking of vehicles on streets is causing traffic jams across city. NMC has provided 10 towing vehicles (six for two-wheelers and four for four-wheelers) to the police for the action.

 

A meeting in this regard was held on Friday in which Commissioner of Police (CP) Amitesh Kumar, Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B and Joint CP Aswati Dorje, Additional CP Navinchandra Reddy, DCP (Traffic) Sarang Awad, DCP (Detection) Chinmay Pandit, Additional Mpl Commr Deepak Meena, Prashant Ugemuge and Chetan Kayarkar were present. In the first phase, the action will be initiated at Sitabuldi, Sadar, Central Avenue, Bajaj Nagar and IT Park areas. These are most crowded places of the city due to markets. Sitabuldi, Sadar and Sonegaon traffic divisions have been instructed to conduct the drive. The new towing vehicles will be fitted with live recording cameras to stop unfair practices or malpractices by staff of the contractors.

 

If the vehicle owner appears before towing the vehicle parked in the ‘no parking’ area, then he will not be charged towing charges. He will have to pay ‘no parking’ charges. Earlier, the fine for unauthorised parking was Rs 200 for two-wheelers and Rs 500 for four-wheelers. The Union government had increased the fine to Rs 500 in December last year. It means that a two-wheeler owner will have to pay a fine of Rs 500, towing charge of Rs 200, NMC’s fee of Rs 20 and 18 per cent GST. Similarly, a four-wheeler owner will have to pay Rs 1,020, including towing charge of Rs 400, NMC’s fee of Rs 40 and 18 per cent GST. The police have requested citizens to park their vehicles with discipline and in parking zones only.