Chandigarh, April 18: Under the recently notified parking policy by the local government for 10 municipal corporations, bigger vehicles will have to pay more.
Parking prices can vary from city to city in Amritsar, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Jalandhar, Bathinda, Hoshiarpur, Mohali, Phagwara, Moga and Pathankot corporations.
Based on the location, time and even days of week, parking prices, decided by parking management wings can vary from place to place within the respective corporations. Higher demand locations will stand to charge higher prices. On-street parking will be more expensive than off-street parking.
Karnesh Sharma, Director, Local Government, said: “We have notified the policy. Now, each local government will respond individually and seek a formal permission from us before its implementation. They will have to work out the details of parking areas and rates in the first place”.
The parking fee stands to be revised every quarter. Parks and green spaces in all corporations will not be utilised for parking.
The notification has specified that the state had urban population of 37 per cent against the national average of 31. The number of vehicles here had increased higher than the annual growth of population. Besides public inconvenience, the unorganised sector was proving to be a massive administrative problem for the local authorities.
The notification mentions that on-street parking, particularly for shopkeepers, office-goers and those needing to park their vehicles for more than three hours, is being discouraged. They will have to pay higher prices. This category of users will get space in the specially created off-street parking places near them.
Residents using the on-street space to park their vehicles outside their own houses will be required to pay a fee as well. An additional vehicle in each individual case will be charged extra at higher rates.
The policy will be applicable to parking that is managed by public or even private authorities, besides cinema halls, hospitals, malls, educational institutions, airports and railway stations.
Under the notified policy, the parking fee will not apply to autorickshaws and taxis standing at specially designated places. Bicycles, too, will not be charged anything.
Besides traffic police, the policy talks about empowering identified corporation officers for issuing challans to traffic violators. It underlines engaging video cameras that will click pictures and videos and send them at the address of vehicles. Challans will be required to be paid online.
Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
