The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has invited fresh bids from companies and cooperative agencies to run parking lots in the city after a gap of nine years.
The bids will be opened in the middle of February, said Debashis Kumar, mayoral council member in charge of the KMC’s car parking department. “The parking lots will be distributed to the successful bidders within two months of the opening of the bids.”
Tenders for distributing civic parking lots in the city were last floated in 2013- 14. Successful bidders were assigned parking lots for two years, but the duration was extended every subsequent year.
“The clout of the agencies involved in managing parking lots is so strong that once they had removed the box where bid documents were to be submitted at the KMC headquarters, foiling the civic body’s attempt to select new bidders,” said a KMC official.
The fee parking zones in Kolkta owned by the KMC can accommodate about 15,000 cars.
Managing parking lots is a lucrative trade. Across Kolkata, employees of agencies managing parking lots charge more than the stipulated rates, do not display the rates and do not give receipts after collecting the money. There is hardly any action to rein them in.
Parking attendants are known to ask for up to 10 times the rate approved by the KMC.
“Anyone can bid for managing a parking lot. Experienced agencies as well as those without any experience are eligible to submit a bid,” Kumar said.
Once a company or an agency wins a bid and starts managing a parking bay, it will charge enhanced rates approved by the KMC.
The existing parking rate for four-wheelers is Rs 10 an hour from 7 am to 10 pm.
The new rates, yet to come into effect: Rs 20 an hour for the first two hours, Rs 40 an hour from the third till the fifth hour. Thereafter, the rate is Rs 100 an hour. There will be different rates at night.
The new rates for two-wheelers, too, are more than the current ones.
Kumar said the KMC has classified roads with parking bays along them into four categories. Parking agencies, too, fall into four categories — A, B, C and D — depending on their experience. Agencies with minimal or no experience are in Category D.
“Most experienced agencies can bid for parking stretches in congested areas such asBurrabazar and Esplanade. The ones in Category D can bid for a parking bay in a lane away from the main road. A company new in the business won’t beable to handle the pressure in a congested place like Burrabazar or Esplanade,” Kumar said.
A company or an agency that is in Category A needs to have experience in managing parking lots for at least 20 years. Such organisations can bid for managing parking bays along BB Ganguly Street, Bertram Street, India Exchange Place, Kiron Sankar Roy Road, Strand Road, Park Street, Russel Street and Chowringhee Square.
“The highest bidder will win the right to manage a parking lot, which may include two or more roads,” said a KMC official.
The KMC has also reserved 50 per cent of all 270 parking lots for organisations that are registered as cooperative societies.
“Only cooperative agencies will be able to bid for 50 per cent of the lots,” said a KMC official. The rest is open to individuals and single-ownership or partnership companies, among others.
The tender document says successful bidders will run parking lots for two years and the tenure may be extended by a year.