The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will float an e-tender inviting bids to manage parking bays in the city only after the state government fixes parking rates, mayor Firhad Hakim said on Friday.
The civic body has sought to know from the state government what should be the parking rates in Kolkata.
Officials said the civic body could only fix a reserve price for managing a parking bay after the parking rates are fixed. The reserve price is the minimum price a bidder has to quote.
If the state government allows an increase in the parking rates, it will mean that the agencies managing parking bays will be collecting more money than what they do now. In such a situation, the KMC will fix a higher reserve price than what should have been the price if there is no revision in parking rates.
The KMC recently sent a comparative study of the parking rates in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore to Nabanna.
Hakim had then said the state government should decide what the parking rates should be in Kolkata. This was after the civic body was forced to revoke a hike in parking rates.
The raised parking rates became effective on April 1 but were withdrawn on April 7 after Trinamul spokesperson and state general secretary Kunal Ghosh told anews conference that the hike did not have the approval of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the party. Ghosh said the chief minister was unaware of the hike in parking rates.
“We are waiting for a word from the state government on what should be the parking fees in Kolkata. We have sent a study of parking rates in some Indian cities but have not heard anything from the state government yet,” Hakim said on Friday.
“We will float the e-tender after we hear from the state government on the parking rates.”
In January, the KMC had invited bids from cooperative agencies and other agencies and companies to manage parking bays in the city.
The bids were invited after a gap of nine years, but the entire process was cancelled after it was found that the tender violated an order of the state government.
KMC sources cited a government order that said any tender with a value of Rs 1 lakh or more should be floated electronically. The KMC had asked bidders to submit bids physically though the value of each of the tenders was more than Rs 1 lakh.
Multiple tenders were floated, each related to management of parking bays on a few roads.
Managing parking bays along roads in Kolkata is a much sought-after business and the competition to bag the rights has always been cut-throat, said civic officials. Complaints of manipulation in bagging the rights are not uncommon.
An e-tender is more transparent. If bids are submitted physically, there is always the possibility that someone will prevent a rival from submitting a bid. Such tactics will not work if bids are submitted electronically, civic sources said.
Tenders for distributing civic parking lots in Kolkata were last floated in 2013-14. Successful bidders wereassigned parking lots fortwo years, but the tenure was extended every subsequent year.