The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has approved a substantial increase in the charges for reclaiming carts, stalls and other goods seized for obstructing public roads, making it more expensive for roadside operators to recover their property from civic warehouses.
The revised Ahmedabad road encroachment penalty was approved by the AMC’s Town Planning Committee, according to Divya Bhaskar. Committee chairman Bhagyેશ Patel said the charges had not been revised since 2003, prompting the civic body to approve a new fee structure that is expected to be roughly twice the existing level.
The Estate Department carries out seizure drives against carts, stalls and other goods placed on public roads in ways that obstruct traffic. Under the revised arrangement, owners seeking the return of seized goods will have to pay the applicable charges in full. A monthly storage charge will also apply if the goods are not collected within the stipulated period.
The decision retains the existing provision that seized goods can remain with the corporation for up to 90 days. The report also states that goods will not be released during the first 45 days, creating separate waiting and retention provisions whose detailed implementation schedule will need to be communicated by the AMC. The civic body has not published the revised item-wise charges in the supplied report.
Food items seized during enforcement action will not be retained, according to the committee’s decision. Such items will be returned to the concerned cart operator. The reported policy applies to carts, stalls and other material found to be encroaching on public roads, rather than to food products themselves.
The revised conditions are stricter for repeat violations and for seizures from designated no-vending zones and junctions. Goods seized from no-vending zones and crossroads will not be returned from AMC warehouses. The report further states that goods will not be released if the owner clashes with or attacks the civic team during a seizure operation.
For a first seizure, the report says the material may be returned after the applicable waiting and retention conditions are met. In cases involving a second or third seizure, the material will not be returned. The new charges and non-return provisions therefore link the financial penalty to a wider enforcement system covering public-road access, traffic obstruction, repeat violations and the protection of municipal staff during drives.
The decision places a higher recovery cost on operators who continue to use roads or prohibited locations for vending and storage. Its implementation will depend on the AMC Estate Department applying the revised charges, storage rules and non-return conditions consistently across enforcement operations. The next operational step is the introduction of the approved charge structure by the civic administration.
