The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) on Tuesday handed over a list of 27 roads in the city to police where parking fees are being collected from vehicle owners “illegally”.
The civic body has not authorised any agency to collect fees from these stretches.
The list was handed over to officers of the traffic wing of Kolkata Police at a meeting held in the KMC headquarters on Tuesday.
KMC officials did not share the list handed over to the police. But several Calcuttans told Metro about some stretches where parking fees were collected though they did not see a board mentioning that it was a fee parking zone. There were no markings on the road either.
A resident in the Rabindra Sarobar area said he was asked for parking charges once on a lane at South end park in Dhakuria and on a lane in Chakraberia on another day. Several residents said illegal parking was common across Burrabazar and central Calcutta.
Overcharging by attendants and parking in two or three lines also cropped up in the meeting. The KMC also requested the police to take legal action against any attendant who does not collect the fees through point of sales (POS) machines.
“We have handed over a list of 27 roads to the police where we have noticed illegal parking. We have also told the police to act against anyone who does not collect parking fees using the POS machines,” said Debashis Kumar, the mayoral council member in charge of KMC’s parking department, who chaired the meeting.
Kumar, mayor Firhad Hakim and multiple KMC officials have over the last one year promised to ensure that parking fees were collected only using the POS machines, but almost all parking attendants do not use the machine.
On Tuesday, Kumar said: “The use of POS machines across the city will be implemented now.”
The POS machines would generate a token when a car enters a parking bay. When the car leaves the parking bay, a receipt mentioning the car’s registration number, the time of entry, the time of exit and the amount to be paid will be given to the occupants of
the car.
KMC officials believe if this is implemented, attendants will not have much scope to fleece car owners and overcharge them.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had last week vented out her anger at the mushrooming of illegal parking.
The absence of proper boards making it clear whether a stretch was a fee parking zone or not, the hourly parking rates, the agency managing the stretch and where to complain leave common people confused and helpless if they are overcharged or harassed.
Kumar promised to change this. “The boards are removed by the agencies. Also, they were not very visible. We will now put up glow-sign boards mentioning if a stretch was a fee parking zone or a free one. The boards will have information about the number of cars that can be parked on the stretch,” he said.
“We discussed how to stop overcharging and ensure the use of POS machines. The objective is to streamline the parking in the city,” said Yeilwad Shrikant Jagannathrao, the deputy commissioner of police (traffic).
