The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) and Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) have received an overwhelming response to their drive to clear abandoned vehicles from city roads. However, officials found that many complaints were allegedly motivated by personal disputes, particularly over parking.
Residents were allowed to report vehicles that appeared to have been abandoned for a long period through the ASTraM app, along with photographs and location details. More than 6,000 vehicles were flagged within two weeks.
After verification, officials found that only around 3,000 vehicles were genuinely abandoned, while nearly half of the complaints were found to be false or wrongly flagged.
According to traffic police sources, several complaints stemmed from neighbourhood parking disputes. In some cases, residents reported vehicles belonging to neighbours who had parked them on the street and travelled to their hometowns.
Police also found that cars belonging to families who regularly use two-wheelers for commuting had been wrongly reported as abandoned simply because they remained parked outside their homes for several days.
There were also instances where garage owners had parked customers’ vehicles on roads, following which annoyed residents reported them as abandoned.
Although no action has been taken against those who filed false complaints, police have urged citizens to report only genuine abandoned vehicles, warning that unnecessary complaints consume valuable manpower and delay other citizen services.
So far, more than 1,000 vehicles have been cleared under the drive. In several cases, owners removed their vehicles themselves after receiving notices and paying the prescribed fines.
