- Monday, 12.15pm, Kalakar Street: No space to park a car. The parking attendant says all cars parked there pay a monthly fee and there is no room for any more car
- Monday, 12.30pm, Bysack Street: The parking attendant repeats the same reason while refusing parking
The rule: Kolkata Municipal Corporation does not take any monthly fee to reserve parking space for any car in its approved parking bays during the day.
Across Kolkata, parking attendants refuse parking space to cars citing a term “monthly parking” that civic officials asserted was “illegal”.
People visiting an area for a few hours and trying to find space to park their cars have to undergo the harrowing experience of being refused a parking space even when it is available.
On Monday, The Telegraph visited Burrabazar and Middleton Street, only to be told that there was no space to park a car.
In Burrabazar, parking attendants said all slots were occupied by cars whose owners made monthly payments. On Middleton Street, attendants said the owners of some of the parked cars made monthly payments and others paid on a daily basis.
“There are cars whose owners have been parking here for 30-35 years. They all make monthly payments. The rate is Rs 4,000 a month,” said a parking attendant on Kalakar Street in Burrabazar in northwest Kolkata.
“There are people who are ready to pay up to Rs 10,000 a month. I cannot give them space. How can I give you space?” the attendant told this newspaper.
Asked how someone coming for work for a few hours would park their car, the attendant said: “If there is a vacant space, park the car. The rate is Rs 50 per hour.”
The KMC-approved rate for parking four-wheelers during the day is Rs 10 an hour.
On Middleton Street in the central business district, a parking attendant said one had to pay Rs 3,000 at the beginning of the month to be able to park the car for the month.
The Telegraph encountered Kolkata’s parking mafia in two pockets on Monday but residents allege they are in operation all over the city.
KMC officials said anyone making monthly payments to reserve a parking space was committing an “illegal act”.
Cars parked along Brabourne Road in Burrabazar on Monday afternoon. Sanat Kr Sinha
“There is nothing called monthly parking. This system was discontinued from 2016 or 2017. All parking co-operatives were told not to take monthly parking fees,” said an official.
“The monthly fee was discontinued so that occasional or non-regular visitors could find space to park their cars,” the KMC official said.
Night parking rule
Though the monthly parking fee has been discontinued, the civic body takes an annual fee to allow parking in front of a business establishment. The applicant must have a trade licence.
The annual fee is over Rs 25,000 a year.
Such annual fee is taken only from those having business establishments and not from working professionals, who have to make daily payments.
The parking space is allowed only in front of that particular business establishment and not in KMC-approved general parking bays. Approval is subject to the clearance from police.
Car owners not having a garage can pay Rs 6,124 a year, inclusive of taxes, to the KMC to park their car on the road in front of their house from 10pm to 7am. This fee is taken only for night parking.
The KMC issues a sticker as proof of approved night parking that must be stuck on the front windshield.