Your vehicle will be clicked before getting towed

Ahmedabad: Shreya Shah had parked her scooter near a multiplex on Drive-In Road recently. However, when her vehicle was being towed away, she furiously demanded to know how the cops had decided that her vehicle was parked wrongly.
At that time, officials were not able to give a plausible reply. However, such scuffles will now be a matter of the past as all traffic branch officials have been handed over digital cameras to click photographs of the vehicles parked outside the notified areas.According to traffic branch officials, it will reduce conflicts with public, like it happened at Shivranjani crossroads last week when an angry mob pelted stones at the towing van and traffic cops over a parking row.
It is not only commuters who are bearing the brunt of parking woes, traffic branch officials almost always have a difficult time to convince owners of towed vehicles that their vehicle has been parked wrongly.
Thus, taking lessons from metros, the towing crane will have an official with a digital camera that will also maintain records of offenders, helping the department identify habitual offenders and even trouble spots. Such spots will be brought to the notice of municipal corporation officials who can work out feasible solutions with local residents or shopkeepers.
Uday Joshi, assistant commissioner of police (Traffic), told TOI that most often commuters resort to arguments to evade fine. "Offenders have a tendency to say they parked their vehicle only for five minutes. But if we get four such men, it can block a stretch open for commuters. Thus, we want to discourage those who have this five-minute' mentality," he said.
He added that BRTS stretches are increasingly used as a parking lot. "We will photograph the vehicles and show it to owners. We do not want to harass them unnecessarily," he added.