'No commercial parking within 15km from zero point of int'l border permitted sans prior nod'

Kolkata: The state Transport department has notified that no parking area can be used on commercial basis on any land within 15 km from the zero point of the International borders across the state without prior permission of the department or specifically ordered by the District Magistrate for a temporary period, after taking necessary concurrence of the Transport department.

Other government departments/agencies/local bodies will restrain themselves from letting out parking space without prior approval of the Transport department.

The notification comes soon after the Transport department officially acquired all the truck terminals situated at the International border on Monday after instructions by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the state administrative review meeting last Thursday.

"I have received information that some people have been taking money from the truck terminal functioning along the border. Different political parties and a section of officers are involved in this which might fulfil the needs of some people but it is not coming to any benefit for the government. I shall not allow such things to continue... We want the revenue to go to the government exchequer and not distributed among some individuals. So, I want the Transport department to take over all such truck terminals without delay and the whole process should be completed by February 7," Banerjee had said instructing state Transport minister Firhad Hakim to take necessary measures in this regard.

The department will now come up with state-of-the-art truck terminuses at Petrapole, Bongaon and Ghojadanga in North 24-Parganas, Changrabanda in Cooch Behar, Joygaon in Alipurduar, Mahadipur in Malda, Hili in South Dinajpur, Phulbari in Jalpaiguri and Panitanki in Darjeeling.

"We have already started the design for the state of the art truck terminals that will be developed," a senior official of the state Transport department said. The concerned Superintendents of Police have been asked to have necessary security arrangements at the terminals.

The Transport department has been authorized by the Finance department to open one bank account in any nationalized bank for each international check post where parking management has been taken over. "It has been reported that records of the vehicles coming, halting and leaving the international border through the check post are not maintained as per expectation. But with the Transport department taking over the matter will be streamlined," a senior Nabanna official said.