Civic body cancels single parking concessionaire plan

NEW DELHI: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation will abandon its project to assign all parking lots in its jurisdiction to one concessionaire after alleged pressure

NEW DELHI: The North Delhi Municipal Corporation will abandon its project to assign all parking lots in its jurisdiction to one concessionaire after alleged pressure from the parking mafia.

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Municipal sources said the decision came after the corporation did not get applications for the project. The few interested contractors were also forced to exit due to local pressures, the source said.

The north civic body wanted to outsource all its parking sites to a single entity to fix responsibility and fight the parking mafia.

Officials had then cited defaulting contractors as the trigger for the project. “There are 97 parking sites under the north body’s jurisdiction. Most of the parking concessionaires had defaulted on the payments within the first month of getting the contract. Several discrepancies were found in the operation of many others,” said an official.

However, after two failed attempts, the corporation again decided to go back to a single parking contract.

Municipal sources said some companies showed interest. But their internal surveys showed them that local pressure at the parking sites would have affected their income.

“Major concerns of the companies included the illegal parking which existed in the nearby area and the local pressure from market associations and residents which would have affected their income,” said a senior official.

Previously, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) also tried something similar. It allocated 52 of its 78 parking spots to a Mumbai-based company. After initial enthusiasm, the company bailed out soon due to lack of revenue generation and tiff with locals near the parkings.

“Apart from local pressure, the newcomers face the brunt of local parking mafia or previous contractors who failed to vacate the sites despite their contract term ending,” said a municipal official.

North MCD standing committee chairman Parvesh Wahi, however, said there was no parking mafia. “There may be pressure from market associations and residents. But there is no parking mafia in our area. The decision to go back to the previous policy has been taken because we didn’t receive any applications. Due to our financial conditions we can’t allow them to be used for free,” said Wahi.