150 new cranes for cops to tow away big cars

Saturday, May 23, 2009
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Make sure you think twice before parking your car on a busy street. The traffic police is all set to multiply the number of cranes in the city to four times its present strength in a bid to check unauthorized parking and the resultant traffic snarls on major roads. And this time, large big cars and SUVs will not be spared either as the new cranes will also include a sizable number of high-capacity ones.

On Thursday, Delhi Police floated a tender to hire an additional 150 cranes for its traffic wing. This includes 110 small cranes with a capacity of 1-2 tonnes, which can tow all models of small and medium-sized cars and two-wheelers. Another 40 high-capacity cranes are specially being added to the fleet, with a capacity of 1.4 to 3 tonnes, especially for large luxury cars, jeeps and SUVs.

Till now, the existing cranes being used by the cops were not equipped to tow away large cars and even when they forcibly did so, the front of the vehicles would get damaged. "The new high-capacity cranes will adjust the hook of the boom between the two front tyres, lock them and then lift the car ensuring no damage is caused to the vehicle, said S N Shrivastava, joint commissioner of police (traffic).

In another major relief to car owners, all officials on towing duty have been ordered to first report the registration number of each car picked up from the road, along with the location, and report it to the traffic helpline number. The location where the owner of the vehicle can retrieve it will also be mentioned. So, looking for your car which is towed away will no longer be a struggle.

In addition to this, each vehicle will be photographed before it is lifted from the spot where it was parked illegally so that the photo can act as evidence in case of any dispute. At present, the traffic police has just 53 cranes on its rolls to deal with the problem of unauthorized parking all over the city. All these cranes have also been hired by the cops. Apart from these, there are another 28 cranes owned by the traffic police, but these are exclusively used to tow away broken down vehicles causing jams on roads. The new cranes should be operational in a month's time, the official added.