To ease traffic congestion in Imphal City and to prevent illegal parking, the Traffic Control Police Wing, Manipur on Monday conducted a drive along RIMS Road booking 30 vehicles for illegal parking.
In a press note issued by the Traffic Control Police Wing, Manipur, it said that the drive was conducted for removing vehicles parked illegally on the southern side of the RIMS Road. An order of DC, Imphal West had banned vehicles from parking on the southern side of the road as it leads to traffic congestion blocking emergency vehicles and many citizens had raised concerns about it too, the release stated.
According to the Traffic Control Police Wing, in the recent past, despite awareness given by traffic police, vehicles continued to be parked at the ‘No Parking’ zone. It was very difficult to penalize the offender as the Traffic Control Police Wing does not have a ‘tow-away vehicle’ at present and traffic police personnel had to wait near the vehicle till the driver came back. Even if tire clamps were used, it was time consuming to penalize the illegal parkers, it added.
It further stated that with the introduction of e-challan and cashless payment of fines, traffic police need not wait for the driver of the illegally parked vehicle to penalize them. They just need to challan the vehicle and place it on the vehicle even when the owner or driver is not present. Payment of the fine is mandatory as pending fine will mean non issuance of NOC certificate of the vehicle and no transfer of ownership. Further e-court will soon be introduced to handle pending fines, said the press note.
“Residents along RIMS road, some of the important hospitals of Manipur including RIMS and a smooth flow of traffic could be a matter of life and death for those moving towards the hospital. Traffic Control Police Wing appealed to the public to co-operate in maintaining smooth traffic flow in this important stretch of road and park only on the northern side of the road,” it stated.
Traffic Control Police Wing, Manipur told IFP over the phone that similar drives will be done in most of the congested areas of the Imphal City in order to ease traffic congestion. Traffic challan will be imposed for illegal parking even in absentia of a driver, they said.
Meanwhile, despite the government issuing an order not to park vehicles along Paona and Thangal Bazaar stretches, a huge number of vehicles are seen parked leading to traffic congestion and causing difficulties for peddlers.
