For years on end seized vehicles have been dumped here and are gathering dust. What was confined to a small portion by the side of the road has now grown to accommodate more vehicles, including autorickshaws, two-wheelers and cars, is now spilling onto the road as well. This has a caused a bottleneck on the already congested Cottonpet Main Road that connects south Bangalore to the Majestic area in the city.
Subramanya K., who uses the road regularly, said vehicular movement on the arterial road is high. “There are several buses that ply on the road. The vehicles seized by the police that have been parked on the road are worsening the traffic movement on the already congested road,” he said.
Concurring, an autorickshaw driver, Venkatesh K., said with the number of vehicles seized by the police increasing, even the bus-stand had been displaced. “People are now forced to wait for buses pretty much in the middle of the road. Whenever buses stop here, there is a pile up of vehicles,” he said.
In fact, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) in a public appeal in February 2012 had urged citizens across the city to clear unused, scrap vehicles from road sides and footpaths within a week’s time.
The BBMP had threatened to tow away such vehicles to dump yards if not cleared within the allotted time.
The then BBMP Commissioner M.K. Shankarlinge Gowda had even written to the police, requesting them to remove seized vehicles that were gathering dust and shift them elsewhere.
Official take Cottonpet inspector Sunil Kumar B. told The Hindu that the station gets more abandoned vehicles than other stations. “We try to dispose the vehicles through auctions. We have sought the court’s permission for the same. As per the procedure, it takes at least six months to get the assent from the court and get a gazette notification to dispose vehicles. Since the area is already congested we have to wait till we get orders,” he said, and added that they have taken care to ensure smooth flow of traffic on the road.
