Six months on, civic body mulls revoking ₹10,000 parking fine

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is considering to revoke the ₹10,000 fine for illegal parking in the city, six months after it had decided to introduce

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is considering to revoke the ₹10,000 fine for illegal parking in the city, six months after it had decided to introduce it. A decision on the implementation of the fine will be taken in the next two days.

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Additional municipal commissioner Vijay Singhal said, “We are deciding on revoking the ₹10,000 fine. A circular is likely to be issued in a day or two to revise the fine and its implementation.”

The development comes after the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA) had raised objections over the implementation of the fine.

The parking authority alleged that it was not consulted before the civic body introduced the fine.

On December 3, in a meeting with civic officials, MPA members had urged the administration to revoke the decision to levy hefty fines and revise the plan to impose such a fine.

A senior official from MPA said, “The implementation of the ₹10,000 fine fails on many parameters. BMC administration didn’t take any suggestion from citizens into consideration. Even proper signages and directions were not placed around areas near parking lots, owing to which, citizens were unaware about the fines. Such flaws derail the whole purpose of the decision.”

However, urban planners believe that a strong deterrent is necessary for discouraging motorists from parking illegally.

Pankaj Joshi, executive director of Urban Design Research Institute, said, “If authorities don’t want to impose hefty fines, they must at least impose a penalty which is proportionate to the offence. We cannot subsidise fines for offenders only because they are unaware about the rules.”

On June 19, BMC chief Praveen Pardeshi had directed all assistant commissioners in BMC’s 24 administrative wards to impose a fine of up to ₹10,000 on vehicle owners who park their cars within a 500-metre radius of public parking lots.

The new fines were rolled out from July 7.

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