Hakim orders installation of ‘Parking’ & ‘No Parking’ boards on city streets
Kolkata: In the wake of complaints related to illegal car parking on city streets, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) Mayor Firhad Hakim has instructed his officials to install boards on streets which clearly spell out where cars can be and cannot be parked.
During the recent Talk to Mayor programme, he received a call from a citizen who said he has complained to the KMC several times about illegal parking at the road behind Jogajog Bhavan in Central Kolkata and yet no steps are being
taken to remedy the problem. He claimed he has even spoken to a parking department official but the problem continues to persist. Hakim was apparently disappointed after hearing the complaint but told the complainant that as a Mayor he alone does not decide where cars can be parked and where they can’t be. He said there is a committee in the parking department which takes such decisions. Hakim assured the person that KMC has spoken to the traffic police to crack down on illegal parking.
The Mayor, however, instructed his officials that boards need to be put up at the parking and non-parking zones in the city where cars are generally found parked illegally. He said that even as the KMC is trying its best to stop this illegal parking, a combination of various issues is becoming an obstacle towards fully reining this problem.
Sources said most of the time, vehicle owners are randomly parking on the road and not in the designated parking slots since they are alleging that abnormally high parking fees are being charged to them by the operators of these parking areas. Despite KMC having given out strict instructions to collect parking fees through hand-held Point of Sale machines, vehicle owners allege that operators are demanding cash and not giving any receipt against it so there is no proof of how much they are charging. Many citizens have also complained about illegal parking at night which often blocks the exits or entrances of narrow alleys, making it difficult for ambulances or fire brigades to enter in case of an emergency. In this regard, KMC has asked the councillors of their respective wards to keep an eye out and give a written complaint to the KMC in case they come across complaints of illegal night parking. For night time, the KMC has clarified that cars can only be parked on roads which are 18 ft wide. “KMC is conducting night drives thrice a week. We are attaching stickers to cars which are seen parked on the road, asking the owners to contact KMC so they can legally park their cars at night on the road by paying a fee,” a parking department official said.
