PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation will resume the drive to confiscate abandoned vehicles from May, nearly two months after it was stopped.The announcement came a day after a five-year-old boy died getting trapped in an abandoned vehicle in rural Pune. The revival of the drive would prevent such fatal accidents besides decongesting roads, especially in Peth areas. Roads cannot be widened in these places because of space crunch and the abandoned vehicles add to the traffic congestion.Madhav Jagtap , the head of the Pune Municipal Corporation ( PMC )’s anti-encroachment department, told TOI on Tuesday, “The civic body has now planned to auction the vehicles confiscated during the earlier drive. Thereafter, some space will be available for dumping the vehicles seized during the fresh drive from the next month.”According to the PMC officials, the earlier drive was started in December 2017. It was conducted for around one-and-a-half months. Over 690 vehicles were confiscated then.Jagtap said the civic body had contacted the regional transport office (RTO) to get the details of the owners of the confiscated vehicles. Final notices would be issued to them for collecting vehicles. The vehicles of the owners not replying to the notices or not taking any action in this regard would be auctioned.According to the PMC’s estimates, nearly 50,000 unclaimed vehicles are lying on open spaces and roads across the city. The Peth areas face the maximum problem of congestion because of such vehicles blocking the carriageway. Abandoned vehicles are a menace in other parts of the city, too.“Some vehicles are left on roads after accidents. Also, many two-wheelers found on roadsides are stolen ones,” said a senior official of the PMC’s anti-encroachment department.He said these vehicles not only deface the roads, but also become breeding ground of mosquitoes. Vandals remove parts of the abandoned vehicles over the years, leaving behind just the frames.