Police on Friday started a drive to end illegal parking along thoroughfares and clamped vehicles found unattended in “No-Parking” zones.

Dozens of cars and two-wheelers that were parked on footpaths in Jorasanko and along Hazra Road, Central Avenue, Mayo Road, Park Street, Russell Street, Diamond Harbour Road and other prominent thoroughfares were clamped and e-challans sent to the mobile numbers linked to the vehicles’ registration.

If the drivers or owners were near the vehicles, their documents were sought and examined.

Metro spotted several prosecutions on Friday. The majority of the people whose vehicles were prosecuted were heard complaining of the same thing — “But I have been parking my vehicle here for many years. Never faced any problem before.”

A two-wheeler rider was prosecuted near his office on Russell Street. Many in the area who did not approve of a fat row of bikes occupying almost the entire pavement said the police should have taken this step years ago.

The fine for illegal parking is Rs 500 for the first offence and Rs 1,500 for each subsequent offence.

The police action came a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee instructed Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal to look into the problem of illegal parking across
the city.

The police said the aim was to free the footpaths and roads of vehicles parked illegally and to identify areas that could be used as parking lots.

“When we ask a motorist not to park a car in a particular spot, he invariably asks for an alternative space. We need to have more parking lots,” said a traffic police officer.

Footpaths and thoroughfares have shrunk in this city because of increasing layers of illegally parked vehicles. The police chose to look the other way until the push from the chief minister.

Sources in the police said all traffic guards across the city have been asked to submit a report on the roads encroached by illegally parked vehicles, locations that are neither parking zones nor no-parking zones and spots that can be turned into multi-storey car parking lots.

“We are checking papers of the agencies that run parking lots on behalf of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. A detailed report will be submitted to the office of deputy commissioner of the traffic department,” said an assistant commissioner of police in the south division.

“We have been asked to take strict action if we come across cases where people are found collecting parking fees without any authorisation,” said the officer in charge of a traffic guard in central Calcutta.