Pay goons and park your car anywhere you like

KOLKATA: Did you know that the city has a provision to accommodate only 7,500 cars at a time when the number of four wheelers has crossed the staggering 12 lakh mark. Ever wondered how these vehicles are getting space in the parking lots officially earmarked as Parking Zones' by KMC? It's simple. There is nothing official about our parking lots.

Scores of parking zones have come up without any sanction from either the civic or police authorities. According to figures given by the KMC parking department, the civic body has approved 29 cooperative agencies to run parking lots along over 300 stretches (spots) in the city. However, around 42 stretches, according to KMC parking department officials, are manned by agencies which are fake. This is only an official figure. However, the actual number of fake agencies manning the city's parking lots could be much higher, warned a senior official of the KMC car parking department.

If fake agencies are running a parallel car parking business on major thoroughfares or prominent localities like as Kankurgachi, Sunny Park, Hindustan Park, Gariahat Road, Rashbehari Avenue, Karl Marx Sarani (Kidderpore), Short Street, JL Nehru Road and Lindsay Street, they must be running hundreds of such car parking lots in the city's fringe areas like Dum Dum, Behala and Jadavpur. Some KMC parking department officials wouldn't disagree. But, they won't tell you the numbers.

One thing is very clear. A nexus between fake car parking agencies, the KMC and police officials helps this business thrive. Fake car parking zones have, thus, mushroomed across the city. KMC's member, mayor-in-council (parking) Rajib Deb, who took charge of the department last week, promised action against civic officials who have failed to identify and act against such fake agencies. "It is true that civic officials have failed to discharge their duties and book fake parking agencies. This has led to mushrooming of unauthorised car parking zones. Now, it is our duty to find them and act tough," Deb said on Tuesday.

A plan for joint KMC-police raids against fake parking agencies was chalked out on Tuesday at a meeting Deb held with city police's traffic department officers. "We plan to conduct raids on some fake parking zones in prime areas soon," Deb said. The KMC will then convert some of these illegal parking lots into legal ones, a civic official said.

This apart, the KMC parking department has submitted a list of 63 areas where the civic body want to have parking lots. "We will open these parking lots as soon as we get permission from the traffic police," the MMiC said.