The Hindu     06.09.2012

PPP model for monorail project

A preliminary meeting on the proposed monorail project for Hubli-Dharwad was held at the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Wednesday.

Deputy Commissioner Sameer Shukla, Hubli-Dharwad Urban Development Authority chairman Lingaraj Patil, and officials of the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation, Engineering Projects India (EPI) Ltd., and Scomi, a Malaysian company, took part in the meeting.

The EPI and Scomi representatives said the project would require an investment of Rs. 150 crore per km. Mr. Shukla told presspersons that EPI and Scomi had proposed to take up the monorail project through public-private partnership model.

Study report

The traffic study report conducted by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport in 2009 was given to officials. They had been told to identify routes to make it viable and submit a report, he added. They were told to prepare a tentative route map for the city in 15 days.A formal proposal would be submitted after the route map was approved, he added.

The next meeting would be held on September 22. Mr. Patil said EPI and Scomi officials had got information on the alignment of route between Hosur circle to the airport in Hubli, and from the Jubilee Circle to Karnatak University and the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) Dharwad.

• Officials told to prepare route map within 15 days
• Next meeting to be held on September 22

The Indian Express    04.09.2012

With no takers for parking lots, Municipal Corp facing losses

Having earned money in crores through auctioning of paid parking lots, the Municipal Corporation (MC) is at present facing losses with no contractor willing to take up charge of these lots. While five paid parking lots were already vacant for the past few months, the contractor at Empire Store parking lot Sector 17 gave up charge today. Even as the civic body has failed to find a solution to the problem, the parking situation in different sectors is quite chaotic.

Four paid parking lots in different sectors have been lying vacant since January. While attempts were made to auction these parking lots more than once, the prices received though more than the reserve price were less than the highest bid received for the lots in the previous auctions. Due to this the auction observers decided that these parking lots would not be allotted to the contractors.

During the auction of paid parking lots held in 2010, Municipal Corporation earned a revenue of Rs 3.43 crore through 12 paid parking lots. There are a total of 23 paid parking lots in the city. In the subsequent auctions the prices have witnessed a downslide. Another auction held in the same year was not as successful as the one held earlier. This year attempts were made to auction five paid parking lots that had become vacant. However, the auction was canceled after the bid amount received was less than the auction prices in the previous auctions.

The subsequent attempts at auctioning was a greater failure since no contractor even applied for taking part in the auctions. With the parking lots lying vacant, MC is facing losses of up to Rs 5 lakh a month. The contractors recently met the Municipal Commissioner and submitted a list of demands. They have demanded a change in policies of the civic body for the parking lots to be taken up by the contractors.

A contractor says, “The contractors do not manage to save much after paying the civic body. There is a need for increasing the rate of the paid parking. These should be made on hourly basis. At present after paying Rs 5 for four-wheelers and Rs 2 for two-wheelers, people park their vehicles throughout the day. If charges are on hourly basis it would prevent people from unnecessarily parking their vehicles in markets making space for more vehicles.”

The contractors have further demanded that there should be separate parking arrangements for the shopkeepers in different sectors. The space can instead be used for the visitors to the market and it would reduce congestion. The contractors rue the fines being imposed and a new condition as per which the allotment of the parking lot could be canceled in case the contractors are challaned five times.

The conditions of parking in the city are, meanwhile quite chaotic. Vehicles are haphazardly parked. There is a lack of attendants to guide people who are parking their vehicles. The experiment of the civic body of introducing token system in two Sector 17 parking lots has also failed. The aim was that parking would be allowed as per the number of slots available after issuing a token. This is not being followed. The charge of managing the parking lots has recently been shifted to the Enforcement Department.

Additional Commissioner, MC, Lalit Siwach says, “The contractors are complaining about the terms and conditions that have been framed by the MC. These are being looked into and a policy would be framed that would be conducive for the contractors as well as beneficial for the residents.