Mangaluru : People are upset that towing vehicle personnel, including traffic police personnel accompanying them, do not give an early warning before taking away the vehicles.

But not many complaining about damage to their vehicles when being towed away, motorists are crying hoarse over vehicles being towed though they are not parked in ‘no-parking’ zones.

A retired bank officer, said his two-wheeler parked in front of a bank on Bejai Main Road was lifted away without any warning. “It was not parked in a ‘no-parking’ zone and people had been parking vehicles at the place for years,” he told.

The worst thing, he said, was he had no clue where the vehicle was ferried. There should be some mechanism at least to inform the vehicle owners where to get their vehicles back, Mr. Acharya said.

Police Commissioner Sandeep Patil told that the towing system was being fine tuned and shortcomings would be addressed. Prior announcement was mandatory and suitable instructions would be given to the concerned to follow the rules, he said. Regarding vehicles not parked in ‘no-parking’ zones being towed away, Mr. Patil said if such vehicles were found to be obstructing vehicular/pedestrian movement, they would be taken away irrespective of the zone.

Towing had brought in some sense of discipline among motorists in the city, Mr. Patil said, and added that the police had written to Mangaluru City Corporation to provide adequate parking spaces. For lack of parking space, motorists indulge in haphazard parking, he said.

The government may provide a portion of fine amount collected to respective commissionerate to utilise the same for traffic management infrastructure soon, Mr. Patil added.

The city traffic police have collected over ₹31 lakh in fine by towing away about 3,800 two-wheelers and 265 four-wheelers since towing vehicles were pressed into service on March 1.

The entire fine amount, however, does not go to the government as nearly half of it is shared with the entity providing towing vehicle service to the police. In essence, the government got ₹17.73 lakh and the private operator ₹13.67 lakh.