When walking past Gulshan police station in Dhaka, it is easy to think one has mistakenly wandered into an impound lot.
Hundreds of motorcycles and cars that have been seized by the law enforcement agency, including some from expensive brands, litter the roadside and severely inconvenience pedestrians and regular traffic.
The situation is almost identical outside other police stations of the capital. The vehicles have been accumulating for years, and many of them cannot be disposed of as they are considered evidence in legal cases.
Police sources said they are keeping as many vehicles as possible on the premises of police stations, but they are all out of space.
No space for walking
This reporter recently visited various police stations in five areas of Dhaka.
At Gulshan temporary police station on Gulshan North Avenue, there were more than 200 vehicles permanently parked on four roads in the police station area. People can no longer walk on the sidewalks of these roads, and the impounded vehicles occupy about half of the roads as well.
Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka TribuneLocals said these impounded vehicles are a major cause of traffic congestion in the area.
Syed Ashfaq Hamza, a resident of Gulshan 2, said: “Every car here has been sitting for 5-10 years. You can see how rusty they are and there are pieces missing. These cars are of no use, the only thing they do is make our daily commute difficult.”
Also read - Police: We do not have impound lots
Md Aminul Islam, inspector (operations) of the police station, told Dhaka Tribune: “It is not our intention to cause difficulty for the people. The police station has to stay here. The space inside the police station was occupied long ago. It is also a headache for us when more vehicles are brought in, because we have to find somewhere to keep them.”
On the road next to Banani police station, a haphazard line of impounded vehicles stretches for about a half kilometre. At a distance, it almost seems as if the vehicles are waiting to enter the police station.
Banani police have chosen to keep the footpaths clear, but the impounded vehicles still block off about half the road.
A pedestrian in the area told this correspondent: “I have to pass the police station every day to go to the office. This is a busy road used by hundreds of vehicles each day, and they are all forced to use only half of it.”
The road by Motijheel police station was also crowded with impounded vehicles. There are many public and private banks near the police station, drawing heavy traffic to the area.
Banani police station Officer-in-Charge Noor-e-Azam said: “We do not have space to park our own vehicles, let alone impounded vehicles. The court area is where the seized vehicles are initially kept, and then they are taken to temporary impound lots. If the temporary lots are full then the vehicles come to the police station, and if police stations are full then they end up on the side of the road.”
Solution is a long process
Under the pressure of impounded vehicles, each police station has become an unmarked impound lot, Chawk Bazar and Adabar police station sources said.
“We have no other choice. We do not get enough space for our police station, so we have no other option but to keep these vehicles on the road,” one of the policeman said.
Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka TribuneAdabar police station OC Shaker Mohammed Zubair told the Dhaka Tribune: “The reality is our police station is in a rented house. We keep there all types of seized vehicles, including trucks, buses, CNGs, and cars, as well as police vehicles. We barely have space to walk outside the police station building.”
The OC hoped that the situation can be remedied to some degree once the police station moves to its new and permanent location in the Beribadah area. “The government has allocated one acre of land for Adabar police station there, so we may be able to make some arrangements to keep vehicles there.”
OCs of other police stations also said permanent spaces were being allocated for the stations, but it would be difficult to find sufficient space for the huge volume of seized vehicles.
Gulshan police station Officer-in-charge (OC) Abul Hasan said: “We have to keep the vehicles here as evidence. Since there is not enough space in Dhaka, the government is not able to give us enough space for the police station. So, we are not getting more space for the police station.”
