In what looks like a fallout of the recent gang rape of a BPO staffer by two drivers of a private transport vehicle, the Transport department is on an overdrive to book illegal Tempo Travellers and maxi cabs across the City. Since Wednesday, the enforcement team of the transport department has booked and seized close to 400 vehicles.
On Thursday alone, the team checked about 5,000 vehicles including private buses, maxi cabs, taxis, tempo travellers and private cars in various parts of the City, including Central Silk Board junction, BTM Layout, Sarjapur, Electronics City and surrounding areas, where a majority of the IT/BT campuses are located.
The team seized 270 vehicles, booked their owners and also removed black tints, curtains, cooling papers stuck to the windows of several of these vehicles on the spot. The team also removed the focus lights which were fitted in front of the office vehicles. On Wednesday, the team had checked close to 3,000 vehicles and had seized more than 120 commercial vehicles for various violations.
A majority of these vehicles are hired by the IT and ITeS firms which do not have their own transport for pick-up and drop of the employees in Electronics City, Sarjapur, Koramangala, Bannerghatta Road, Manyata Tech Park and Hebbal. These vehicles, a majority of which do not even have proper documents, make hundreds of trips round the clock.
Other private vehicles were also checked and drivers were booked for plying with defective number plates, non-payment of taxes and not carrying valid documents like emission test and insurance certificates and for plying without registration during the day-long drive. Officials said the drive will be intensified in the coming days.
The traffic police conducted a surprise check and booked 45 Tempo Travellers for violation of permits on the Outer Ring Road near Madiwala on Wednesday night.
They were also illegally ferrying passengers. The vehicles are supposed to ferry only employees of companies to which they are attached, police said.