PUNE: Contrary to its parking policy, which is aimed at reducing the parking of vehicles along the roadside, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has raised the parking tariffs of indoor parking facilities to Rs 5 for two-wheelers and Rs 14 for four-wheelers. Since last few days, due to this decision, people are parking their vehicles in open spaces or along the roadside. Interestingly, the parking policy was approved by the General Body six months ago.
Earlier, the civic administration had launched a ‘pay and park’ policy on city roads in order to reduce the traffic bottlenecks due to haphazard parking of vehicles. However, this policy was opposed by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and all other political parties, activists and common people.
It was decided to implement pay and park policy on five major roads on an experimental basis for six months before implementing it in the entire city.
The right to choose the roads for the experimental run was given to the committee headed by the Mayor. The committee was given the right to increase parking charges. However, in the last six months, the committee did not meet even once.
Meanwhile, the administration conducted a survey of 32 roads in order to choose five roads on pilot basis. Civic administration handed over the survey report to the city Mayor. However, no decision was taken on this proposal for several months. Now, BJP’s top leaders are saying that the party has decided not to implement the policy in the backdrop of upcoming elections.
Now, when the party has taken one step back, the administration has gone and increased indoor parking charges. These parking lots are being run by private contractors. It has increased charges from Rs 3 to Rs 5 for two-wheelers per hour and from Rs 5 to Rs 14 per hour for four-wheelers.
When queried, Anil Muley, Deputy Commissioner of Land and Estate Management of PMC, said, “According to the policy, we have increased charges for parking contract tenders. PMC has 14 indoor parking lots in the city. All these lots are given to private players to run.”
Chetan Tupe, city unit president of NCP, said, “Ruling BJP does not have the courage to implement the policy but on the other hand, contractors have got right to increase parking charges. It is a loot of people’s money.”
Shrinath Bhimale, Leader of the House in PMC, said, “If people are parking their vehicles along the roadside due to increased parking charges, we will take a review of revised parking charges.”
Vivek Velankar, civic activist, said, “It is true that from last few days, parking fees have been increased on the roadside and open spaces. When we took information from the PMC, we found they have increased indoor parking lot charges. It is unfair that the PMC is not providing parking lots as mentioned in the policy and they are charging more for parking.”
INCREASE IN TRAFFIC
In many city areas, there is free parking. Now, after increasing indoor parking charges, people are preferring to park their vehicles along the roadside, especially in open spaces as well as internal roads. Not only two-wheelers but four-wheelers are also being parked to avoid heavy parking charges. Therefore, traffic congestion has been increased in the city areas especially in old city areas.
