When parking fee is more than cost of car

Imagine a situation where the parking fee of your vehicle is more than the market price of your car, reports Neelam Pandey.

Imagine a situation where the parking fee of your vehicle is more than the market price of your car.

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It may sound bizarre but that is the case with nearly 150 odd cars parked at the Asaf Ali Marg multi-level parking lot run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

For instance, the owner of a Toyota Corolla that has been parked here for a decade owes the contractor nearly Rs three lakh.

But according to a car dealer, the market price of the vehicle is merely Rs 20,000.

“The car is in a bad shape and is a very old model. The market price is between Rs 10,000-20,000,” said Vijay Mishra, owner of New Car Age.

The parking contractor of the lot –– built in 1995 –– has been running into losses for years and has continuously written to the MCD and the Delhi Police but to no avail.

“We had even verified some of the vehicle and traced the owners. But when we contacted them they refused to take back the vehicle. The vehicles have eaten up half of the space. We can’t even auction them as we need permission,” said Shiv Kumar, manager of the parking lot.

The MCD now plans to write to the DCP (Central) for taking strict action against the vehicle owners.

“The contractor had recently complained to us and now we are planning to write to the DCP. If the police fails to remove the vehicle, we will write to the MCD commissioner for auctioning them”, said Ravideep Singh Chahar, Additional Deputy Commissioner, city zone.

Delhi Police, however, claimed all the vehicles are verified. “As per our information there are no vehicles in the parking lot that are not verified. We keep checking the vehicles on a routine basis”, said Alok Kumar, DCP, (Central).