The Indian Express             26.06.2013

MC divides Ferozepur road parking into 30 blocks upto Sidhwan canal, auction today

Each parking lot has been given a specific auction amount ranging from a maximum of Rs 57.60 lakh to a minimum of Rs 10 lakh.

As per the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, dated May 29, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation has made all the arrangements to convert the parking lots on Ferozepur road into paid parking. The auction of the 13 parking sites divided into 30 blocks up to Sidhwan Canal will be held on June 26 at the Zone-D office of the MC.

Based on annual licence fee, contractors will be given the responsibility for each parking lot for one year. Each parking lot has been given a specific auction amount ranging from maximum Rs 57.60 lakh to minimum Rs 10 lakh, as per the official documents accessed by Ludhiana Newsline.

In 13 parking sites, the MC has divided the total parking area of 1,38,777 square feet into 30 blocks from A to Z4. Following the HC orders, which asked the MC to finalise the rates of parking on its own, rates have been fixed as Rs 5 for cycle, Rs 10 for scooter, car, rickshaw or any four-wheeler.

However, car owners will be the ultimate sufferers as they have to pay Rs 10 for one hour and Rs 20 for another hour. If the car parked crosses two hours, not only a penalty of Rs 1,000 will be slapped, traffic police or MC tehbazari wing will tow away the car, as per the High Court orders.

However, a scooter or cycle can be parked for unlimited time period paying Rs 5 and Rs 10 respectively. While these rates have been fixed for the common man, the shop and other commercial establishment owners have to pay Rs 100 per day for parking cars.

"A separate identity token will be issued to every shopkeeper by the contractor," say the MC documents.

Contractors have also been told to issue separate tokens to employees of banks and insurance companies who will be charged Rs 30 for the whole day to park their cars.

Not only this, the MC has also told the contractors beforehand that "in case due to six-laning of road going on, if development work or construction starts in any of the block, MC will not take the monthly instalment from the contractor".

Keeping in mind the harassment caused to public when they are asked to pay the service tax by parking contractors (MC getting such complaints from Feroze Gandhi Market and other areas in city), MC this time has already made it clear in rules that people will not be asked to pay service tax.

"We have already made it clear in rules that rates specified are including service tax and thus people will not be charged a single penny in the name of service tax," said Naveen Malhotra, an MC official, heading this project.

Asked if the MC failed to conduct a successful auction on Wednesday, Malhotra said, "We are expecting a good response as many people have called up to enquire and we have kept the rates very nominal but still if auction fails to conclude, we will be presenting all efforts done by MC to auction sites successfully in front of HC during the next hearing on July 5."

Deepak Badyal, general secretary, Ferozepur Road Shopkeepers Association, said, "The decision to make parking paid is not a happy one for shopkeepers and definitely for visitors too. Our business will also suffer and people will be in a rush to move out of shops before two hours but definitely it is better than no parking at all."

"Now we will have to think about coming to offices on scooters, and not in cars," said another shopkeeper, commenting on fee of Rs 100 per day for shop owners.