Fed up of having to watch over 199 unclaimed vehicles on their property, officials from six police stations in south Mumbai will soon be auctioning them all.
The Grant Road to Pydhonie belt, designated as Zone II for purposes of jurisdiction, has the Pydhonie, L.T. Marg, Malabar Hill, Gamdevi, D.B. Marg and V.P. Road police stations. These, and the chowkies attached to them, have been host to vehicles of all makes and models, lying in their care for various reasons.
Police inspector Raja Bidkar, D.B. Marg police station, said some of these vehicles have been lying around for as long as 10 years.
“In some cases, the vehicles are stolen and abandoned by perpetrators after they run out of fuel. By this time, however, the owners have already claimed insurance and are not interested in the vehicles any more. We even tried to reach the owners, but in some cases they have shifted to new addresses and in other, they simply refused to claim the vehicles,” he said.
As of now, there are three scooters and two motorcycles with the D.B. Marg police station, 17 scooters and 10 motorcycles with V.P. Road, eight scooters, four cars and 34 motorcycles with Gamdevi, one scooter and two motorcycles with Malabar Hill, two scooters and 13 motorcycles with L.T. Marg and 39 scooters, four bicycles, four cars and 56 motorcycles with the Pydhonie police station.
“There are various other ways in which vehicles end up in our care. At times, they are involved in criminal cases, and claiming them requires permission from the court. In other cases, they are simply abandoned on the road for long periods of time. When citizens start complaining about the inconvenience they cause, we have to bring them to the police station premises,” senior police inspector Rajendra Mohite, Gamdevi police station, said.
Mr. Bidkar said the police department has decided to wait for three weeks before starting the auction. “We have also contacted various insurance companies to check if they have records for any of these vehicles, but have received no response. In some cases, the vehicles, after months of neglect, are in such a bad condition that the owners don’t even want to incur the cost of towing them away, let alone restore them,” Mr. Bidkar said.
The date of the auction will be decided once the three-week period comes to an end. The proceeds will be deposited in the State treasury, and vehicles that find no takers will be sold as scrap.