HYDERABAD, Dec 3: Encroachments and tow trucks operated by traffic police in Cantonment area have become a perennial nuisance for motorists, pedestrians, shoppers and shopkeepers alike but neither traffic police nor Cantonment Board Hyderabad appears serious to rid people of it too soon. Shopkeepers who pay a number of taxes to the CBH lose a large number of potential customers whose vehicles are routinely towed away by traffic police. They complain nobody is ready to pay heed to their problem.

“CBH authorities do not make it binding on shopkeepers to keep their merchandise like refrigerators inside the shops. When they offload them from vehicles the road gets choked,” said Salahuddin Ghori, chairman of subcommittee of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry on CBH.

Similarly, he said, stalls had been set up on the space for sidewalks in front of shops in the Gul Centre leaving no room for pedestrians to walk but it had thus far failed to stir CBH management to action.

“There are two ‘no-parking’ signs on the road outside Gul Centre. After all, customers need to park vehicles somewhere but as soon as they do, tow trucks appear out of nowhere and try to take away their vehicles, forcing them to quit shopping, run after the vehicle and get into heated arguments with traffic cops,” Ghori added.

CBH authorities have not so far taken action against the shopkeepers who have occupied large portions of sidewalks or roads to run businesses, like food stuff and wheel-balancing in front of old Venus cinema.

Mechanics check vehicles outside the shops on the road and waiters serve food stuff among their customers who prefer sitting in their vehicles. As a result, the already narrow road gets narrower.

Traffic police operates two tow trucks in the city which are mainly used in the CBH’s municipal area. According to a traffic police official, the tow trucks’ contract is awarded to the highest bidder.

The contractor lifted vehicles and traffic police challaned them, he said.

“The CBH anti-encroachment staff look the other way for very ‘obvious’ reasons and allow shopkeepers to occupy the road,” said a police source.

He said that traffic signals often developed faults but the Hyderabad Development Authority which was responsible to maintain them did not repair them in time despite repeated requests.

DSP (traffic) Khawar Gul said that encroachments were mainly responsible for all the traffic problems. “How can we regulate traffic when roads remain occupied by shopkeepers who have illegally created extra spaces for their business,” he said.

He said that removal of encroachments was not their job. It was primarily CBH’s job to make it binding on shopkeepers to keep their merchandise inside the shops. “Only then we will be able to regulate traffic on roads,” said the DSP.

According to figures he had obtained from reliable sources, he said, only in 2010-11 around 300,000 different kinds of vehicles were registered in the district. “It depicts a grim picture. Since the roads can’t be widened every institution will have to work to make roads free from encroachments to make traffic regulation easier,” he said.

CBH Secretary Imdad Hussain said that the board had devised a phase-wise strategy to tackle the problem and was moving against shops on the Makki Shah road and in Saddar Bazaar area.

“We will move gradually after taking shopkeepers into confidence on removing encroachments,” he said and added that in many instances, shopkeepers’ merchandise had been removed and fine had been imposed.