Chandigarh: ‘Smart’ play in poll year, no hike in parking rates

The MC House okays handing over management of the 21 parking spaces in Sector 17 to private contractor

Treading carefully in the election year, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led General House of the municipal corporation (MC) on Tuesday decided against hiking parking rates at the 21 lots in Sector 17. The elections are slated for December.

Councillors protesting against the BJP in the Well of the House during the meeting at municipal corporation office in Sector 17, Chandigarh on Tuesday. (Keshav Singh/HT)

The House, however, passed the agenda to hand over the operation and management of these 21 parking lots, including the multi-level parking, to a private contractor at the existing rates (see box).

Interestingly, the agenda for the meeting, released 72 hours before the session, had proposed to raise the parking rates and charge motorists depending on the duration of parking.

When the agenda came up for hearing, mayor Saurabh Joshi deferred it, stating, “We will not be increasing the parking rates in an election year.” Councillors across party lines backed the decision. As the meeting progressed, municipal commissioner Amit Kumar suggested that the agenda could still be passed at the existing parking rates, which the House followed through. The committee constituted for the scrutiny and evaluation of technical and financial bids for the purpose recommended inviting bids from eligible and experienced contractors through e-auction on Government e-Marketplace portal.

According to the proposal, the contract will be awarded to the successful bidder for a period of four years at a reserved price of ₹3 crore annually. The contractor’s licence fee will remain unchanged for the first two years and increase by 5% in the third year, with the fourth-year fee remaining at the third-year level.

The corporation, which currently manages the parking lots itself, generates over ₹2 crore annually from 18 sites.

Smart parking in limbo

While the decision to hand over the management to a private contractor is expected to provide additional revenue to the MC, reduce its operational responsibilities and ensure improved management of the parking lots, the veto to rate revision has put smart parking infrastructure in limbo.

As councillors raised questions regarding the proposed smart parking infrastructure in Sector 17, the mayor said that since the parking charges will be the same, it won’t be possible to develop infrastructure such as boom barriers, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras, ticketing/point-of-sale facilities among others. He, however, stated that they will explore having certain smart features at some of the parking lots.