Dubai: The number of abandoned cars keeps on increasing just as the level of temperature this summer.
Tecom and The Greens are particularly affected according to residents, who complain that dirty, abandoned cars are taking up parking spaces.
Two abandoned cars are very evident in one car park that was recently dug up for redevelopment — the two cars have been left standing in their original spaces while the rest of the area has become a construction site.
See picture gallery: Abandoned cars around UAE
"It's quite crazy [the situation]", Prince Thomas, 30, Indian marketing executive and resident of Tecom told Gulf News. "I hope the police pick up these cars as soon as possible. The more the cars keep lying here, the more people will do it," the Dubai resident of four years said.
In Thomas' residential road, eight abandoned cars take up 16 per cent of the roadside parking spaces.
Gulf News also found cars abandoned in private residential car parks — some of which were parked over more than one designated space and others with no number plates.
Abandoned cars are obvious once they become very dirty. Many have their number plates removed so that the owners are more difficult to trace and they may have parts missing, such as windows or mirrors, and may be beyond repair. Some also have rude or offensive slogans written in the dust on their bodies.
Monitor
According to Abdul Rahman Marzouqi, Head, Abandoned Cars unit at Dubai Municipality, they monitor suspected abandoned cars for 10 days before any action is taken, to check if they are truly abandoned.
"After this we put a notice on the car for 15 days for the owners, depending on where the car is; on a main road etc. After 15 days if there is a plate number we check with the police — if they want to confiscate they do and if not we then remove it," he told Gulf News.
Cars confiscated by Dubai Municipality are taken to the abandoned cars unit in Umm Ramool, where they are kept for six months. If the owner claims the car in this time, it costs around Dh700 to release the vehicle.
Contact
To report an abandoned car, call the Dubai Municipality hotline: 800 900
