Five builders pulled up for illegal parking in Noida’s Sector 77

The city magistrate has directed the builders to submit replies or face legal action as per law

City magistrate MK Singh issued notices to five builders — Ajnara Group, Amrapali Market, Gardenia India Limited, Spectrum Mall owner and Civitech Group — accusing them of unauthorised parking on roads outside their buildings in sectors 74, 75, 76 and 77.

Unauthorised parking is a major problem in Noida. (Virendra Singh Gosain/HT PHOTO)

Officials said this was causing a congestion on the roads.

The magistrate has directed the builders to submit replies or face legal action as per law.

Notices were issued after a Sector 77 resident, Amit Gupta, had on December 12 filed a complaint accusing the builders of parking their vehicles on roadsides and hindering smooth flow of traffic on internal roads.

The complainant had alleged that illegal parking is a nuisance to the general public and it can cause law and order problem if the issue is not addressed at the earliest.

“I issued notices to five builders under the Indian Penal Code’s section 133(1) and directed them to file their replies. They have started submitting their replies and denied illegal parking on the roads. We will ask the traffic police to conduct an inspection and find out whether the builders have stopped illegal parking after we sent the notices. If they do not stop illegal parking, we will take appropriate action that includes filing an FIR under Sector 188 of the IPC, because their activities are causing nuisance,” Singh said.

The city magistrate said that he will give adequate opportunities to the five builders to submit their reply to the charges. “However, if the builder’s reply is found untrue, we will lodge an FIR,” Singh said.

In last five months, the city magistrate has issued notices over illegal parking to 35 parties that include builders, traders and individuals. However, the administration has not filed an FIR against anyone.

“The judicial process against the 35 and these five new cases is underway. Once the cases are finalised, we will take further action,” Singh said.

Illegal parking on roads is a major nuisance in residential, industrial and commercial areas of the city. Office-goers have to face congestion and jams daily due to illegal parking on roads.

“Even after notices, the five builders continue to park their vehicles on roads causing a nuisance to public and motorists, who use the roads in sectors 74, 75, 76 and 77,” Gupta, a resident of Sector 77, who had filed the complaint with the authority, said.

The builders, however, denied illegal parking on roads.

“I have written to the Noida authority to impound the parked vehicles and take action. Unknown visitors are parking their vehicles on roads outside our projects in Sector 76. We have nothing to do with this parking. We have asked the city magistrate to remove all parked vehicles. We are not parking on the roads,” Shiv Priya, director, Amrapali Group, said.

Officials of the Noida authority, traffic police and the administration said that they have started a drive against illegal parking in the city.

“A traffic inspector came to us to discuss the issue of illegal parking on roads outside our project in Sector 75. We told him that the parking is not done by our staff and he verified this and acknowledged it,” Manoj Gaur promoter of Gardenia India Limited, said.

Despite repeated attempts, representatives of Spectrum Mall, Civitech and Ajnara were not available for comments.