Taking advantage of the absence of supervision by the civic authorities concerned, unauthorised persons are duping motorists in the city at unauthorised paid parking lots that came up in various busy areas and roads.
The civic body usually leases out marked public spaces on the roadsides to contractors, who collect parking fee from motorists on an hourly basis. However, some of the contractors are allegedly tricking motorists by extending the parking area as well as doubling the parking fee.
Unauthorised parking lots have come up at several places. One could get an exemption from paying the fee at unauthorised space only when their authenticity is questioned.
“When I parked the vehicle on the road before SBI in One-town, a person approached me and handed over a torn slip which says the fee is ₹10 for two-wheelers and ₹20 for four-wheelers. When I asked him to show identity card or at least a public board showing that it was a paid parking area, he did not charge me anything and went out of my sight before claiming that he had been doing it for years,” said P. Avinash, a private company employee.
Ironically, a board by VMC Additional Commissioner (Revenue) on the bank's entrance says that visitors of the bank need not pay any fee during the bank hours. But, there was no display of paid parking details. Similar situations have turned advantageous for unauthorised persons to fleece motorists on Eluru Road, One-town, Besant Road and other business centres.
On the other hand, roadside paid parking lots over the road margins before commercial establishments have been opposed by the shop owners when the civic body made road margins into paid parking lots a year ago.
