Two parking bays under the Gariahat flyover, which can accommodate 100 cars, have remained shut for over a week, forcing cars and two-wheelers to park on Gariahat Road, shrinking the congested thoroughfare.
The company that was managing the two parking bays earlier is no longer on the job.
Though the Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s contract with the company — Harsh Enterprises — expired in June, the parking bays were open till about a week ago. Parking attendants were collecting money “illegally” and the KMC was not getting any revenue, said a civic official.
The police have cordoned off the parking bays after the KMC wrote to cops to not allow anyone to collect parking fees on the two stretches.
Cars parked on Gariahat Road on Friday.
The KMC is yet to float a tender, though eight months have passed since its contract with Harsh Enterprises expired.
Even if it floats a tender to select a company to manage the parking space, it will take at least 10 days for the facilities to start functioning again.
Visitors to the shopping hub are facing the brunt. The car drivers are doing rounds of the roads around Gariahat in the absence of a parking space, adding to the congestion.
Some drivers are taking a chance and parking the cars on roads. They are leaving the moment they see a traffic sergeant approaching. Parking on roads can invite a fine.
Those who are driving their own cars to the hub, unaware that the parking bays have been shut down, are facing a greater problem as a vacant slot can hardly be found in any of the approved parking spaces on roads in the area.
“I went to Gariahat for some work on Thursday and found the parking bays under the flyover were closed. I had to park the car inside a lane,” said a Behala resident.
A closed parking bay in Gariahat on Friday.
Debashis Kumar, mayoral council member in charge of the KMC’s parking department, told Metro that the civic body would float a tender to select a company to manage the parking stretches.
“We will float the tender soon. We will go for a short tender and interested parties will get seven days to submit their bids,” he said.
An official at Harsh Enterprises told this newspaper that their contract ended in June and they did not apply for renewal.
We ran the two parking bays for seven months but failed to make any profit. We had to pay the KMC a huge amount when we were handed the right to manage the parking lots,” the official said.
“We are not aware of who were collecting the fees after our contract ended.”
The official said there were two challenges in managing the parking bays: the parking attendants failed to reach their collection targets and a section of the parking bays could not be utilised because of the people who live there, under the flyover.
“A portion under the flyover was never open for parking because people were living there,” said the official, who requested anonymity.
A hydraulic car parking area, also under the flyover, is still running but it can accompany only 12 cars.