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.