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Chandigarh MC takes charge of 27 parking lots in city
Parking lots in the city are divided into two zones – 32 in Zone 1 and 57 in Zone 2. In 2020, MC auctioned both zones for three years for around ₹10 crore annually. The contract of both zones expired on January 30 and since then parking lots were running free.
Almost a month after the agreements of parking contractors in Chandigarh expired, the municipal corporation has decided to take over operations of 27 out of the 89 parking lots in the city.
The parking lots were running free since January 30, when the contracts expired. MC officials said that this is a stop-gap arrangement and the parking fee will remain the same— ₹14 for four-wheelers and ₹7 for two-wheelers.
The civic body has hired around 400 people from a private agency to run all the prominent paid parking lots, including Sector 17, 22, 34, and 20.
MC commissioner Anindita Mitra said, “It is a stop-gap arrangement for three months till an agency is hired. On Tuesday, we provided POS (point-of-sale) machines to the employees for generating slips and collecting the fee. Around 300 outsourced employees will manage the lots, she said.
Parking lots in the city are divided into two zones – 32 in Zone 1 and 57 in Zone 2. In 2020, MC auctioned both zones for three years for around ₹10 crore annually. The contract of both zones expired on January 30 and since then parking lots were running for free.
As per the civic body, licence fee of ₹6 crore, along with interest up to December 31, 2022, has not been paid by the contractor concerned.
Paschatya Entertainment Private Limited, which was managing Zone 2, had not paid the dues to civic body to the tune of ₹6.5 crore and even submitted a fake bank guarantee of ₹1.5 crore to the MC. A case has been registered against the Delhi-based firm.
