Soon, KMC to execute license of agreement with parkomat café

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will soon execute a license of agreement with the café situated inside the parkomat at Rawdon Street.

The stall has been running at the parkomat for several years by violating the agreement of KMC with the company that had installed the multilevel car parking system there.

"We have already taken steps to ensure that the owner of the stall can carry out his business in a legal manner by paying the requisite monthly license fee to the KMC," said Debasish Kumar, member Mayor in Council (parking).

The KMC had made an agreement with M/s Simplex Projects Ltd in November 1999, for installation of multi-level car parking system popularly known as Parkomat along the eastern footpath of Rawdon Street.

The said agreement had not allowed Simplex for any commercial activity there apart from car parking.

However, when KMC took over the parkomat from the company in 2016, they found that a stall has come up inside the parkomat and one Mukesh Agarwal has been running the stall under the trade name Park Café.

It was illegal as there was no provision in the agreement for space allotment to the stallholder. The KMC has not received any premium or monthly rent in respect of the stall that has been running from 2003-04 without KMC's knowledge. Even electricity charges of the stall were borne by the KMC.

The stall owner was called for a hearing before chief manager (market) in August 2019, consequently, KMC has decided to execute a license agreement with him for a period of five years so that the stall owner can carry out his business under the trade name Park Café. The monthly license fee has been fixed at Rs 15,444 with the enhancement of 2 per cent every year.

The matter has already received the nod at the monthly meeting of the KMC that was held on Saturday.