Next time when you go to a busy market place, make sure you park your car at the designated parking spots only. For, if you park indiscriminately, the Delhi Traffic Police might put a wheel clamp on your vehicle and you will end up wasting your time getting it removed, instead of shopping!
A wheel clamp, also known as wheel boot or parking boot, is a device designed to prevent vehicles from being moved. In its most common form, it consists of a clamp that surrounds a vehicle’s wheel, to prevent removal of both itself and the wheel.
The Delhi Traffic Police these days has been extensively using the wheel clamp to deter people from parking at odd places, especially in market areas.
Introduced last year on selected roads of Delhi, the technique has now become a preferred one with most traffic policemen.
The technique, according to them is both effective and convenient and saves both time and manpower.
“Whenever we find vehicles parked at odd places, we clamp the wheels and deploy a constable to wait for the vehicle owner to come. Once he/she comes there, we issue a challan for unauthorised parking and free the vehicle from clamp. This is convenient both for us and for the commuter. If we tow away the vehicle, the commuter has to come to the tow away booth and get his vehicle released from there after paying the challan. However, on clamping of the car, the owner can pay the challan at the spot and get his vehicle. In this case, they also save the towing charges which they have to pay otherwise,” said a traffic policeman.
However, ask the commuters whose vehicles are clamped and they will tell you that this is the worst thing to happen. Once your vehicle is clamped you cannot move and will often keep on searching for the policeman.
Many people complain that they do not see policemen near their clamped vehicles and have spent hours trying to find out who clamped their vehicle and how can they get it freed.
Traffic police is currently using 20-30 wheel clamps per circle in Delhi. However, they are planning to increase it in the future depending upon the future success rate of the technique.
Last year alone, they had challaned over a lakh vehicles using the technique and the numbers are all set to rise as it has proved quite successful.
