Mumbai Police removed 358 'khatara' vehicles blocking roads, on Thursday

On Thursday, the Mumbai Police removed 358 abandoned (khatara) vehicles, which were clogging the roads leading to congestion and bottlenecks, police commissioner Sanjay Pandey informed via Twitter.

"Great support from @mybmc our drive #removekhatara (358 removed yesterday). continues. Now looking for bigger lorries to move khataras faster to #deonar. Awaiting help @MahindraRise @TataCompanies Target #cleanyourroads . Let c," he said.

Despite repeated complaints by citizens about the menace of abandoned vehicles on city roads, the Mumbai traffic police had not taken any action. After Pandey took over, he started a drive to remove such vehicles and de-clog the roads.

Earlier, the BMC used to stick notices on vehicles asking owners to remove or clear their vehicles within 15 days since the notice. Those who reclaimed the abandoned vehicles would have to pay a fine of Rs. 10,500. If nobody came to claim the vehicle, then the BMC used to fix the price of each of these vehicles and put them up for auction.

In 2018 a residents' group called Soch Sayani started a campaign called 'Operation Khatara' to get rid of abandoned cars occupying spaces on roads in their locality. They reported these to RTO and BMC to help them clear these vehicles.

Last year in February, Mumbai Traffic Police had written to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to provide them spaces wherever available within the city to park abandoned and scrap vehicles that are parked across the city. The police demanded spaces that can accommodate at least 10,000 abandoned vehicles in a bid to decongest streets, lanes and roads of the city.