BMC to lodge FIR against owners of illegally parked vehicles that may obstruct fire-fighting

“If the fire and rescue operations are hindered due to unauthorized parking, an FIR will be registered directly against the vehicle owners concerned," said the BMC's statement.

3 min readMumbaiFeb 2, 2026 10:26 PM IST

Mumbai has the highest vehicle density among Metro cities.

THE BRIHANMUMBAI Municipal Corporation on Monday said that police complaints including an FIR will be filed against the owners of illegally parked vehicles that may act as obstruction for carrying out fire-fighting operations in Mumbai.

Issuing a statement on Monday, the civic authorities said that often illegally parked vehicles are found blocking fire engines leading to delayed response time.

“If the fire and rescue operations are hindered due to unauthorized parking, an FIR will be registered directly against the vehicle owners concerned,” said the BMC’s statement.

At present, BMC operates 26 off-street parking lots–which includes parking facilities in public and private institutions that are run by the authorities. In addition to this, the civic body has more than 350 on-street parking lots in Mumbai which means vehicles are allowed to park in and around the periphery of traffic islands, lanes and bylanes in Mumbai. However, these facilities are inadequate by a large extent, as a result of which people often park their vehicles on the sides of the roads blocking traffic and pedestrian movement.

Mumbai has the highest vehicle density among Metro cities. According to the state government’s data, Mumbai has a vehicle density of 2,300 cars in every kilometre which is the highest among all metro cities. The government’s data also shows that the number has increased exponentially in the previous years. In 2019, the city’s vehicle density stood at 1,840 per km while in 2014 it stood at 1,150 per km.

In a stark contrast, Mumbai has a road length of 2,050 km which is the lowest among metro cities, since in comparison Delhi has a road network of 33,000 km, Bangalore has a network of 12,800 km, Kolkata 4,018 km and Chennai 2,780 km.

Besides this, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) data shows that 3.02 lakh vehicles were registered in Mumbai in 2025 alone. Earlier in 2024, nearly 2.79 lakh vehicles were registered.

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“Since vehicles are parked illegally on the side strips of roads, the fire engines are unable to get closer to the building or institution where the blaze broke out. In firefighting, even a minute’s delay in response can lead to loss of lives,” an official said.

Civic officials said that whenever the civic authorities encounter such an issue, they will register a complaint with the local police by furnishing the details of the vehicle following which action will be taken by authorities.

BMC removes illegal hawkers from Mohamed Ali Marg and Ibrahim Merchant Marg

On Monday morning, the civic authorities demolished seven illegal shops alongside two illegally parked two wheelers, 12 iron rods and 10 bollards from south Mumbai’s Mohamed Ali Road. The eviction drive was carried out by officials as part of its ongoing drive against illegal encroachments and hawkers. Last week, the BMC had removed illegal hawkers from the Andheri’s Irla area.

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Civic officials maintained that a total of two JCBs were deployed for removing the illegal entities and all the violators were issued notices before the BMC initiated action.

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