Dubai’s RTA to tow, impound cars under new agreement

The authority signed an agreement with Emirates Parkings, which entitles RTA to do so.

The agreement “enhances the impounding system and links it with the traffic and electronic systems to enable sharing of information about seized vehicles and calculating the applicable fees,” the RTA said in a statement on Monday.

Rules and regulations enforced by RTA

This will further “revamp the system” used for saving vehicle data, referred to the Vehicle Sale Committee and maintaining all records of auctioning those vehicles.

The vehicles that could face towing or impounding include:

• Loaded or empty light and heavy vehicles
• Trailers of all types, including mobile caravans, food carts
• Boats
• Bicycles

Vehicles spotted in field monitoring and found in violation of the authority’s rules and regulations can be towed or impounded by the passenger transport activities monitoring department, right-of-way department, rail right-of-way department, licensing activities monitoring department, and parking department as well as any other RTA department.

As per the agreement, the authority will also have access to reports of all impounded vehicles, whereas Emirates Parkings will manage the impounding yard, including providing surveillance cameras and trained personnel.

However, the process of releasing vehicle is as per the circumstance of each vehicle, the statement said.

“If the seizure was a result of a technical traffic violation, the vehicle will be released after the designated period and the fine is paid. In case of a technical traffic violation caused by a technical malfunction, the vehicle will not be released until the issue causing the impoundment has been resolved,” the authority said.

The authority added: “The vehicle will be released after RTA receiving of all the outstanding fees associated with the impounded vehicle. The payment can be made through RTA-approved payment channels and the customers centre at the Emirates Parkings.”