India, June 19 -- 124sq ft - the space occupied by an abandoned vehicle on Mumbai's streets, and there are thousands parked all over. Do the math and that's how much space could be unlocked by the latest initiative to clear away junk vehicles.

Launched last month, the drive is now being ramped up. A review meeting was held at the civic headquarters on Wednesday, to assess the progress of the operation. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has also floated tenders to appoint a private agency to execute the drive.

The civic administration believes this system will be more efficient than the previous one, where multiple authorities, including the traffic police, Regional Transport Offices (RTOs) and the civic ward offices were resp...