GMDA to take over towing of illegally parked vehicles and impose additional fines

GURUGRAM: Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) will now be taking over the responsibility of towing away the vehicles that are illegally parked from the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and impose additional charges along with the steep fines that have been introduced with the Motor Vehicles Amendment Act. Officials have said that the move comes with an aim to lower the chances of corruption in the towing process and GMDA, who plans to improve mobility in Gurugram with its mandate, will levy as towing charges Rs 2,000 for heavy vehicles with more than 10 tires, Rs 1,000 for heavy, medium-sized and all other commercial vehicles, Rs 500 for light vehicles and Rs 200 for two-wheelers. The GMDA will manage towing in Gurugram thorough an internal app.

“Earlier, the process was completely offline. Now, there is an internal app which will manage the service in real time. We were receiving some complaints of deviation from protocol by the earlier contractors. Sometimes, violators were not given challans. The scope for corruption will reduce now,” Himanshu Garg, GMDA additional chief executive officer (mobility) and DCP (traffic) said, adding that the transfer was undertaken at the traffic police’s request.

The traffic police have been in talks with the GMDA for some time on how to address the loose regulation of towing services. New contractors, who will receive 30% revenue share from the towing charges, have been empanelled and are expected to begin work in a day or two.