Patna, March 6: The penalty for flirting with no-parking rules in the city has turned even more severe. Besides the fine, the offenders will now have to bear the towing charge.

For parking two-wheelers at wrong place, an additional penalty of Rs 200 is being imposed on offenders from Friday. In all, the owners of the towed away two-wheelers are being charged Rs 800.

For cars, the towing away charge is Rs 400. The revised penalty for wrong parking of four-wheelers is Rs 1,000.

In both the cases, the rule violators should have all other papers updated. Else, the penalty would jack up.

The newly formed “crane cell” under Patna traffic police has been directed to collect the towing charge in addition to the fine from the motorists caught for wrong parking, the traffic superintendent of police (SP), Ajit Kumar Sinha, today told The Telegraph.

“A sub-inspector and an assistant sub-inspector have been made the in-charge of the crane cell. They will oversee operations,” the traffic SP said.

“According to Section 129 of the Motor Vehicles Act 1958, towing charge is imposed on offenders in case vehicles are towed away by crane. It was not implemented here. Now, the police are charging the motorists with the same in addition to the fine for wrong parking. The rule has been put to use. In the past two days, we have charged owners of 50 vehicles,” the SP said.

“Before vehicles are attached to the crane, the police will announce their registration numbers on microphones to alert their drivers or owners. The drivers can also contact the particular section in-charge present in each area who would give them the status of their vehicles,” a traffic inspector said.

The additional burden of towing away charge has not gone down well will the motorists. “The administration should first come up with designated parking lots before charging us extra,” said Rajeev Kumar, a car owner.

“Areas like Biscomaun Towers have parking space, but it is encroached upon by makeshift stalls. The area near the State Bank of India, right next to Biscoumaun Towers, is always full with vehicles. It makes no sense for a person to park vehicle near the Patna SSP office and then walk back a kilometre to Biscomaun. There should be designated parking lots in each area before heavy fines are imposed,” said Abhinav Prakash, a student.

The Patna traffic police started a drive against wrong parking last week. Over 40 vehicles were towed away. The car owners had to cough up Rs 600 to get their vehicles released.

The traffic police have three cranes. Two of them are non-functional while one is old and cannot lift very heavy vehicles. Though in a bad shape, the third one is being used at present for towing away vehicles.