Shoppers, diners and movie-goers in shopping malls across the city have now been exempted from paying parking fees for their vehicles.
Soon after the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) passed an order directing business establishments to stop collecting parking fees, two leading malls of Mysuru – Mall of Mysore and B.M. Habitat Mall – have begun allowing their parking space to the customers for free.
While the management of B.M. Habitat Mall in Jayalakshmipuram has made parking completely free for both two-wheelers and four-wheelers, Mall of Mysore, situated near the Race Course, has waived parking fee only for vehicles of customers producing a valid bill for purchases made in the mall on the particular day.
“Customers are requested to produce their day’s valid shopping, movie or food bills to avail free parking,” a notice pasted in the parking lot of Mall of Mysore states. The parking attendants, who are issuing coupons to all the vehicles, are collecting the fee from customers who do not make any purchases in the mall.
However, the management of B.M. Habitat Mall is not issuing any coupons. The mall, which has parking space on two levels in the basement, was collecting ₹30 for the first three hours and ₹10 for every additional hour. “We discontinued collection of parking fee from Wednesday evening when the MCC officials served us the orders. We were told by the officials not to turn on the computer systems that issue coupons,” a representative of the mall said.
The MCC’s order to cancel collection of parking fee by the commercial establishments comes after the civic body’s Standing Committee on Town Planning as well as the MCC Council adopted a resolution to the effect earlier this year.
The MCC has argued that commercial establishments had taken building licenses to provide parking in the basement but, basement parking can’t be used for trading.
With a view to avoiding payment of parking fee Mall of Mysore, several movie-goers and shoppers had made it a practice to park their vehicles outside the mall, posing a hindrance to traffic and flouting the no parking rules. Vehicles were even found parked in the adjoining Ittigegud residential locality, said officials.
MCC is not targeting only shopping malls in the city. They will begin cracking down on commercial buildings that have converted their basement parking into premises for ‘commercial’ activities too.
