KMC cracks down on illegal night parkings, fines Rs 1k to free vehicles

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has made payment of parking fees at night mandatory and drives have been conducted throughout the city to book vehicles that are parked illegally.

The owners have to pay a penalty of Rs 1,000 to KMC to free their vehicles. KMC workers along with senior officials visit different areas and the vehicles that are parked on the streets illegaly are clamped. Drives have been conducted at Deb Lane, Entally Market and its neighbourhood, Nirmal Chandra Street, Wellington Square and Lohapatti and Cossipore. Owners of many vehicles paid Rs 1,000 as fine and freed their vehicles.

There are areas particularly surrounding important wholesale markets like Burrabazar, Sealdah, Baithakkhana where private agencies collect night parking fees from the trucks. The KMC charges Rs 400 per month for night parking which comes to Rs 4,800 annually. But the owners will have to pay the entire amount in advance. The owners whose vehicles have been booked can pay Rs 3,200 for August 2017 to March 2018 and get the permission for night parking.

Even taxis that are parked on the street will have to pay parking fees. But the civic authorities will not allow any parking on blind lanes and on narrow roads and lanes as parking may affect easy flow of vehicular movement during any emergency.

The Mayor-in-Council members in their meeting headed by Mayor Sovan Chatterjee cleared the proposal to introduce night parking in the city. This can augment KMC's earnings and stop illegal parkings on streets.

The city turns into a parking zone at night. There are many apartments where shops have been built illegally on the ground floor and owners are forced to park their vehicles on the streets. Also, many flat owners have more than one car and the parking space is allotted for one car, so the other vehicles are parked on the road.

The taxis are supposed to have garages where the vehicles can be parked. But most of the taxis do not have any garage and they are parked on the street.