Chandigarh: 2 weeks of free parking outside Elante, Sukhna
Visitors to Sukhna Lake and Elante Mall can park their vehicles for free for at least two weeks with the municipal corporation (MC) getting parking sites at the lake and outside the mall vacated on Wednesday.
Visitors to Sukhna Lake and Elante Mall can park their vehicles for free for at least two weeks with the municipal corporation (MC) getting parking sites at the lake and outside the mall vacated on Wednesday.
Additional municipal commissioner Sarita Malik said the MC staff got the parking sites vacated from the contractors at 8 am.
“We have already started the process of auctioning the sites and technical bids will be floated on June 2. We hope that after two weeks, the sites will be allotted to new contractors,” said the MC official.
On April 20, contractor of the parking lot outside Elante Mall Pritpal Singh and contractor of Sukhna Lake parking lot Amarjit Singh were issued one-month termination notices following HT reports highlighting fleecing of visitors by the private contractors and their staff.
The notices were issued under clause number 38 of the terms and conditions of allotment of licence deed. The civic body, in fact, rejected the three-month notice given by the contractors in question.
The Elante Mall contractor had been challaned 14 times for overcharging in the past one year, while the one at Sukhna Lake was challaned eight times in the same period.
HT in its series of stories in April this year had highlighted the issue. The contractor outside the Elante Mall had already earned at least `40 lakh in the past 15 months through overcharging. These parking lots happen to be the busiest in the city. The parking lot outside Elante Mall manages 600 fourwheelers and equal number of two-wheelers daily, while the daily parking business at Sukhna Lake involves around 400 four-wheelers and 200 twowheelers.
Former deputy mayor Davesh Moudgil said, “The MC should set an example by blacklisting both the contractors, who have for long been fleecing people of the city and other visitors. Moreover, instructions should be issued to the contractors of other parking lots, directing their staff not to misbehave with visitors at the parking lots.”