Chandigarh: Parking rates hiked by 17% in one zone

The annual increase in parking rates as per the contracts has kicked in at one of the two parking zones under the municipal corporation.

Parking lots in the city are divided into two zones – 32 in Zone 1 and 57 in Zone 2. MC had auctioned both zones for around ₹10 crore annually.

While the parking charges in Zone 1 have been hiked by 17%, there is no change in the Zone 2 rates for now.

Zone 1 comprises parking lots of the southern and eastern sectors, including Sectors 20, 26 and 34. Here, parking fee for four-wheelers has been increased from ₹12 to ₹14 and from ₹6 to ₹7 for two-wheelers.

Zone 2 includes northern areas, such as Sectors 7, 8, 9, 17, 22 and Sukhna Lake.

Ram Kishan, contractor, zone 1, said, “The hike is part of the annual increase approved by MC in the allotment agreement. Last year, too, we had increased the rates by 20%.”

On the other hand, without specifying the reason, zone 2 contractor Vikas Pandey said, “We are yet to increase the rates, as per directions of our headquarters. But we expect to implement the hike before February end.”

MC additional commissioner Rupesh Aggarwal said the annual hike in parking rates was in line with the parking contract and the contractors didn’t need MC’s approval for it.

Management issues, unpaid dues

Notably, while contractors are following the contract in terms of fee hike, management of parking lots still remains far from satisfactory.

Through multiple inspections over the last few months, they have been repeatedly fined for shoddy management.

Besides, the contractors were also issued notices after their dues piled up to ₹4.48 crore. “We are in the process of recovering these dues from the contractors,” said Aggarwal.

Kishan said, “We will be paying the licence fee and pending dues soon, though we have sought remission of the penalties.”

The other contractor had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court against the MC notice.

No hourly charges for now

Even though the contractors had sought implementation of hourly charges last year, MC hasn’t allowed them.

Aggarwal said, “The contractors have still not fully implemented the smart features in their respective parking lots, which is a prerequisite for imposition of hourly charges.”

In October 2020, MC had directed parking contractors to offer all smart features at 89 parking lots being run by them within one month. Hourly parking charges were contingent on that.

But even till now these have not been fully introduced, which a couple of MC inspections last year found.

The smart features include e-ticketing, HD night-vision CCTV cameras, smart card passes, LED display of real-time occupancy and online booking of parking space.

Once hourly parking is introduced, the fee for the first four hours will remain the same as the flat rates being charged currently, but will be doubled thereafter. The charges will be further doubled if vehicles are parked beyond 12 hours.