The capital's traffic police is all set to turn 29 arterial stretches of the city into no-parking zones from next week. Police officers said on Saturday that business establishments such as car dealerships, showrooms, commercial establishments, malls and shops have been asked keep their vehicles within their premises on these roads. Those found violating the new norms would be booked under stricter laws that lay down higher penalties.

Garima Bhatnagar, joint commissioner (Traffic), said that anyone violating these restrictions would be booked under Sections 321 and 322 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act and under certain provisions of the Motor Vehicle Act.

The fines for repeat violations would be compounded, even on an hourly or a daily basis. Traffic officers said that if drivers did not remove their vehicle after being booked, they could end up paying a few thousand rupees for the release of the vehicles.

"The corridors identified will be considered to be no-tolerance zones for roadside parking and road encroachment. We have already conducted surveys on these stretches and will take serious action against violators," said Bhatnagar.

Joint teams of the traffic police and the road owning agency — either the municipal corporation or PWD —would keep a vigil on the stretches from Monday onward. The cops claimed that residents and shop-owners had already been informed about the need to shift their parked vehicles to their private premises. The cops would conduct surprise checks on some of the stretches through the day and stick penalty slips on parked cars even if they were not towed away.

The roads selected cater to almost 70% of the city traffic and remain encroached for almost three quarters of the day, often bringing down the average speed from 40kmph to 15.2kmph.

During the recent meeting on anti-encroachment, lieutenant governor Anil Baijal had asked the traffic police and the civic bodies to clear these roads of encroachments and ensure increase in traffic speed.

Baijal had also advised the local bodies and traffic police to work together to unravel the bottlenecks and unclog traffic congestion at border areas.