04 October,2016 05:18 PM IST | | Anurag Kamble
They're here - high-end towing vans to haul off the city’s fancy cars without damaging them
They're here - high-end towing vans to haul off the city's fancy cars without damaging them. The traffic department has put 80 vans - 40 for cars and 40 for two-wheelers - equipped with special hydraulic cranes on to the city's roads, which will not only ease traffic but also ensure that vehicles don't get damaged while being towed.
The process of replacing the old towing vans with the new ones began on October 1. These new hydraulic cranes will make it easy to tow high-end vehicles like Mercedes, BMWs and Audis. These vehicles are very difficult to tow manually, a traffic police officer said.
Each crane will have a CCTV camera attached to it to capture what position the vehicle was in when it was towed. The traffic police have also developed an MTP app through which they will upload images of the vehicle as soon as it is towed. Citizens can source information of their towed vehicle on the MTP helpline 8545999999, a police officer said.
Joint commissioner of police (traffic) Milind Bharambe said, "There were many complaints of cars getting damaged during towing. That's why the traffic police were hesitant to tow high-end vehicles. Adamant owners of such vehicles and the traffic police's reluctance to touch expensive cars resulted in traffic jams. These new cranes will allow us to lift cars from the Nano to the Mercedes and BMWs.
