The parking rate for cars in Mumbai is as high as Rs 60 for the first hour in some parts of the city.
The rate is Rs 30 an hour in the busiest parts of Bangalore and Rs 20 an hour across Delhi.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), which had last month been forced by the state government to roll back a hike in parking fees, has mentioned the rates in other metro cities in a report it has sent to the government.
The parking rate for cars in Kolkata is Rs 10 an hour and it is the same across the city.
Mayor Firhad Hakim said on Monday that the KMC, along with sending the report of the comparative study of parking rates to the government, has sought to know what rate should be applicable in Kolkata.
The KMC had raised parking rates on April 1 but was forced to roll it back on April 7. The rollback followed an announcement by Trinamul Congress spokesperson and party state general secretary Kunal Ghosh that chief minister Mamata Banerjee was unaware of the hike.
Ghosh said Mamata and the party did not support the KMC’s decision to increase the rates.
Civic officials said Mumbai and Bangalore have three zones and the parking rates vary from one zone to another.
Delhi has a flat rate across the city. Kolkata, too, has a flat rate — Rs 10 an hour for cars and Rs 5 an hour for two-wheelers.
A KMC official told The Telegraph on Tuesday that the hourly parking rates for cars in Bangalore are Rs 30, Rs 20 and Rs 15, depending on which zone the car is parked in.
The rates for two-wheelers are Rs 15, Rs 10 and Rs 5 an hour.
“In Delhi, the parking rate for cars is Rs 20 an hour with a cap of Rs 100. More than Rs 100 cannot be charged even if a car is parked for more than five hours,” said a KMC official.
The rates for cars in the most expensive zones in Mumbai are Rs 60 for an hour, Rs 75 for more than an hour and up to three hours, Rs 105 for more than three hours to six hours, Rs 180 for more than six hours to 12 hours and Rs 210 for more than 12 hours.
The car parking rate in the least expensive zone in Mumbai is Rs 20 for the first hour. It cannot go beyond Rs 75.
In Bangalore, the car parking rate is Rs 15 an hour in the least expensive zone.
Hakim said on Monday that the study showed that parking rates were the lowest in Kolkata among the cities compared. Civic officials said Kolkata had very little road space and a higher parking fee could help decongest the roads.
They think higher parking rates could dissuade people from using private transport and shift to public transport.
A counter-argument put forward by some Kolkatans questions the availability of enough buses and other forms of public transport across the city and at all times of the day.
Hakim said the KMC wanted the state government to decide what should be the parking rates in Kolkata.
This newspaper reported on May 1 that despite being forced to roll back the raised parking rates, the KMC did not completely abandon the idea of increasing the rates.
The rolled-back rates for cars, which were in effect between April 1 and April 7, were Rs 20 an hour for the first two hours, Rs 40 an hour from the third to the fifth hour, and Rs 100 an hour for every hour beyond that.
Hakim has been saying for months that the civic body lacked adequate funds and officials said parking was one of the areas where the KMC could raise money on its own and use them for development work.
At present, the KMC depends largely on the state government to execute projects and day-to-day work.