The Indian Express                18.04.2013

Pay and Park contract: Panel asks civic officials to rework proposal

PMC corporators will not introduce parking fees for vehicles parked on city roads as the co-ordination committee has urged civic officers to rework the proposal by re-tendering the process of pay and park contract.

"It was unanimously decided by leaders of all political parties that the pay and park proposal should not be approved. The administration has been asked to re-table the proposal after repeating the tendering process. The elected representatives have also asked for considering pay and park only for select roads," Mayor Vaishali Bankar said, adding the corporators raised several objections on the proposal saying it would create inconvenience to local residents where it will be implemented. Students using vehicles to commute to colleges and private classes would suffer if they are charged parking fees.

The corporators had rejected the proposal in the past saying the civic body had failed to provide an efficient public transport system to citizens and was trying to put additional burden by charging parking fees from private vehicles.

However, the civic administration, as per the directives of the Union government to discourage private vehicles and encourage use of public transport so as to clear city roads has been tabling the proposal. Its almost three years that the administration has been seeking permission for introducing parking fees for vehicles on city roads.

The administration proposed that parking fee for two-wheelers would be free for the first half an hour, after which Rs 2 will be charged for vehicles parked for more than half an hour, but less than an hour. The parking fee from the second hour would be Rs 3 per hour for two-wheelers, and Rs 5 for four-wheelers.The administration said the rise in the number of vehicles and insufficient parking facilities in buildings in the central part of the city have led to parking of vehicles on roads.

"There is a need to make roads available for traffic more than for parking of vehicles. The large number of vehicles being parked on city roads are adding to the chaos and rise in accidents. Therefore, it is necessary to discourage citizens from using personal vehicle by introducing parking fees," the proposal said.