Pay & park will be back from April

Pay & park
will be back from April
Chandrashekar G | TNN

Bangalore: After two years in limbo, the pay-and-park scheme will be back from the next fiscal. A comprehensive parking policy, including manual and metered parking, is being given final shape.
By April 2008, the entire city will be covered under this scheme. It was scrapped in April 2005 following largescale protests from the public about harassment and fleecing by parking attendants. Subsequently, the state government gave its nod to do away with it.
As a prelude to its reintroduction, a comprehensive survey was commissioned by the KUIDFC to identify potential roads for parking. It has gone into traffic management, intensity of vehicles and solution to problems. Based on the findings, the BBMP identified 90 roads to introduce the pay-and-park scheme.
The police department has been asking BBMP to relaunch the scheme as complaints of vehicle theft are on the rise.
BBMP aims at mopping up annual revenue to the tune of Rs 10 crore from parking fees. The policy would incorporate the number of roads, fee to be collected, roads suitable for manual and metered parking.
“The decision to reintroduce the pay-and-park scheme is just not a revenue mop-up exercise. It’s being introduced to curb haphazard parking and to ensure safety of vehicles. The traffic police have written letters to the BBMP urging reintroduction of this parking scheme. A regular interaction has been taking place between officials of the two departments,” officials explained.
The proposaljavascript:void(0)
Parking fee likely to range from Rs 5 to Rs 20 per hour for two-wheelers and four-wheelers 90 roads identified Manual and metered parking mooted depending on the nature, length and traffic density of road Parking fee announced in 2007-08 budget, but not implemented
Old Scheme
The pay-and-park scheme was scrapped on April 1, 2005 during the tenure of mayor R Narayanaswamy and the BMP council passed a resolution to ban parking fee collection. The issue resurfaced when BBMP received complaints of parking attendants collecting a fee illegally using old receipt books. BBMP earlier earned Rs 4 crore annual revenue from pay-and-park scheme and had permitted metered parking on Commercial Street and Brigade Road.