PMC Pune set to bring Pay-and-Park Scheme Soon
The traffic authorities in Pune have said that with the massive increase in the number of vehicles on the roads every year, parking problems are going to increase and that the carriage width of the roads will be reduced if roads are increasingly used to park vehicles. The traffic authorities have also pointed out that off-street parking has to be encouraged and simultaneously efforts should be taken to prohibit parking on the main roads. Various citizens’ groups working for sustainable transport have also said that parking charges should be high so that the use of private vehicles is discouraged. They have already suggested that the municipal corporation implement parking rates which will increase substantially after every hour.
Several new roads will soon to be bring under the ambit of the pay-and-park system for four-wheelers. The earlier system, in which the Pune Municipal Corporation had imposed a pay-and-park scheme on 50 roads, has been discontinued, and now the corporation plans on starting afresh.
The earlier system, which existed for around five years, had been disbanded because of various issues raised by contractors. “We are in the process of resolving these issues,” said a civic official. “Once the issues are resolved, the PMC will issue a public notification about the implementation of the pay-and-park system,” he said. The system will be implemented not only on the 50 roads covered by the earlier system, but also on new ones which will be indentified in the survey, the officials added.
Civic officials told TOI that a detailed survey to identify the new roads has begun. Among the points the survey has to determine is the average number of vehicles parked on the road stretch every hour, whether the traffic police will allow parking on that particular road and so on. The survey is likely to be completed in two or three weeks, after which the corporation will invite tenders from private contractors to collect the money. Parking charges will be Rs 5 for the first hour and Rs 15 for every additional hour.
The general body of the municipal corporation has asked the administration not to implement a pay-and-park system for two-wheelers. “While the civic administration had proposed that the system be implemented for both two- as well as four-wheelers, the general body has approved a resolution to implement the system only for four-wheelers,” the official said. Last year, the corporation earned nearly Rs 60 lakh by way of parking charges for four-wheelers. The civic administration has said that to implement the system effectively, it is necessary that strict action be taken by the traffic branch against vehicles parked in no-parking areas.
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