A crane tows an illegally parked car in Patna. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, May 8: The drive against illegal parking has thrown up a unique roadblock for the traffic police — the unavailability of cranes to tow away illegally parked vehicles.

Sources said police have four cranes to tow away illegally parked cars. However, three of them are out of order, and one is stationed permanently at Mahatma Gandhi Setu to remove vehicles if they break down on the bridge. In the absence of cranes, the drive against illegal parking has come to a halt.

“Getting a crane here is a problem. We had one crane that broke down a week ago. The other two have not been working for nearly a year now,” a traffic police inspector told The Telegraph.

He added: “All our cranes are more than 10 years old. None of them are well maintained. There has been no initiative to maintain the working crane or repair the ones that have broken down earlier.”

The traffic police have no option but to hire a crane for the job. But that is not without its set of complications.

“The drive against illegal parking of vehicles has been going on for five days. On Wednesday, 15 vehicles were towed. Yesterday, 20 illegally parked vehicles were towed. The drive was enforced on Frazer Road and SP Verma Road,” said the officer.

He added: “The company that provides us the crane does so at its own will. Sometimes, we get the crane in the morning. That allows us to enforce the drive smoothly.

“However, sometimes, we do not get the crane. The drive has stopped today because we do not have the crane,” said the official.

Sources also said the rent of the crane is pretty high and it is difficult for the police to hire it every day. “The company charges Rs 2,000 for the crane, which includes diesel charges. The rent is quite high. There is an additional towing charge of Rs 600 per vehicle,” another officer said.

He added: “There are other crane operators in Patna but they do not want to hire out their equipment to the police.”

The superintendent of police (traffic) was unavailable for comment but a senior officer of the department said: “Three cranes, speed guns and breath analysers will arrive soon. The equipment have already been sanctioned. They will arrive soon and solve the problem once and for all.”

The police said on Saturday around Rs 19,000 had been collected as fine from motorists because of wrong parking.

“The drive yesterday was centred around Frazer Road, AC Verma Road and Station Road. Many vehicles were caught and fine collected from them. Around Rs 19,000 was collected as fine,” said a traffic police officer.

He added: “The day before we collected Rs 16,900 as fine and on Thursday, we collected around Rs 20,000.”

The officer also said that today there were no checks in the city, as the move was centred on the Mahatma Gandhi Setu.

“The police concentrated on the Mahatma Gandhi Setu area today. Fines worth Rs 40,000 were collected from motorists overtaking other vehicles. Overtaking on the bridge has been banned. A district forest officer of Motihari district and a deputy superintendent were also fined. The fine for overtaking on the bridge is Rs 1,000,” the officer said.

On May 7, 2011 The Telegraph had published a report on how a traffic constable had stopped former transport minister and JD (U) legislator Ajit Kumar’s SUV from overtaking a truck on the bridge. The officer said that other areas of the state capital would be brought under the purview of the drive against illegal parking.

“It is difficult to cover more areas in a single day with only one crane at our disposal. But the drive will continue with the same intensity,” the officer said.