KMC to clamp down tighter on night parking violators

"In recent times, there have been a number of cases where we have found that car owners have fled away with vehicles even after we had clamped them. We have decided to fine these offenders double the price of such clamps," a senior official of the Parking department of KMC said.

Apart from the usual fine of Rs 1,000 for illegal parking, the Parking department is imposing an additional fine of Rs 2,800 to 3,000, depending upon the price of the clamps that had been put on the vehicles.

The Parking department had started its night parking drive with full vigour from the month of April this year, after they had put up billboards across the city, cautioning motorists against indiscriminately parking cars at night.

On an average, in April the KMC had put more than 50 clamps every night for illegal parking. On certain days, the clamping reached even 80 vehicles and they were removed only after the vehicle owner/ driver shelled out Rs 1,000 each.

It may be mentioned that after the civic body had put up such billboards to apply for night parking stickers at Rs 450 per month, a number of car owners had come forward and around 250 such applications have come before the civic body till mid May.

The number of applications from Ritchie Road and Lovelock Street alone have been around 100.

"There were hardly 25 to 30 applications a month when the drive started for the first time in July 2017," an official said.

The KMC hands out stickers against payment of Rs 450 per month, which allows parking at designated lots between 10 pm and 7 am, preferably at a location near the residence of the car owners.