Owners of abandoned cars to get SMS warning

SMS messages will be sent to mobile phones of owners of cars abandoned on roadsides, according to Abdul Majid Saifai, Director of Waste Department, Dubai Municipality.

In the SMS, the department will inform owners that their cars will be impounded within 15 days, he added. “The SMS will be in addition to the warning that will be pasted on the abandoned car,” he added.

The new SMS service will be started next year in co-ordination with RTA which has the phone numbers of car owners.

SMS will be sent only if vehicles have digital boards because their owners can be accessed through RTA’s traffic files. Cars without digital boards will only get paper warnings stuck to them, he added.

Local Order No. 11 of 2003 gives Dubai Municipality the power to remove vehicles and equipment abandoned on roadsides and in public places. According to this order, the municipality will consider cars abandoned for long periods as junk and will auction them off six months after towing them away.

According to the department’s statistics, 1830 abandoned cars were towed away in the first ten months of 2011 compared to 2260 during the same period of the previous year. The figure was 2632 cars for the whole year of 2010.

Abdul Rahman Mustafa, head of the transport of vehicles and equipment section, said abandoned cars will be removed only if they spoil the city’s appearance or if they impede cleaning by municipal workers. The warning period could be less than two weeks if the car is abandoned in a sensitive place.  Before removing, it will be checked whether it is on the list of cars under investigation.

The cars will be towed to the department of contracts and procurement which will hand them over to the owners within six months against a fee of Dh710.

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