Mumbai: In the administrative heart of New Marine Lines, near the Textiles Commissioner’s Nishtha Bhavan, a cluster of unused, rusting cars lies abandoned both inside and outside the compound for the past several years.
Among them, sensibly stationary for nearly a decade, is a lone Ambassador, its paint flaking and metal corroding, standing as a testament to neglect in an otherwise busy central government enclave.
These silent relics are more than just eyesores: they raise pressing legal and civic questions. Under Section 314 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1884, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has the authority to seize abandoned and unclaimed vehicles.
Rusting Ambassador and other abandoned cars near Nishtha Bhavan, New Marine Lines, Mumbai | File Photo
The procedure involves pasting a notice on the vehicle and allowing 48 hours for the owner to remove it; failure to do so leads to towing and relocation to a scrapyard. Afterwards, suppose a vehicle remains unclaimed for up to three months. In that case, it may be auctioned under Section 490(3) of the MMC Act, 1884, with recovery of fines from any claiming owner. Yet, in this high-profile government zone, nothing has moved.
Rusting Ambassador and other abandoned cars near Nishtha Bhavan, New Marine Lines, Mumbai | File Photo
The Ambassador inside the Nishtha Bhavan compound, untouched for around ten years, and the other dilapidated cars remain frozen in place as anomalies amid administrative order. Despite clear legal tools, neither municipal enforcement nor internal government directives seem to have been deployed here.
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For citizens and policy watchers, this raises a poignant question: what accountability, and what action, ensues when government-run areas themselves become part of the problem?
