A. Ranjith (name changed), a denizen of Vijayawada, parked his car at the VMC’s parking lot opposite Gandhi Mahila Kalasala for about four hours recently. As he came back to the car after finishing his work, the representative of the parking lot’s contractor asked him to pay Rs. 80.
Baffled at the figure Mr. Ranjith initially refused to pay the sum, which was 3.2 times more than the actual fare, but ended up paying it to avoid a messy situation.
Similar is the case with many motorists using the paid parking lots earmarked by the civic body and the fares demanded by the organisers are more than what is charged by shopping malls in city. “I parked the car for less than the stipulated four hours that is 11.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m. The VMC parking fare for four hours should be only Rs. 20. But what was collected from me is equivalent to what the shopping malls charged if a person crossed the four-hour limit,” Mr. Ranjith said.
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In order to increase revenue, VMC’s standing committee on May 25 approved hike in parking fares but the contractors had been collecting more even prior to that.
Ironically, the move came a couple of days after the shop owners on Eluru Road led by the Tax Payers’ Association staged a protest demanding the municipal corporation to roll back the decision to convert road margins into paid-parking lots.
As per the revised fare, a shop owner needs to pay Rs. 300 a month to park his motorcycle in front of the shop but the contractors are collecting Rs. 350.
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“We are asked to pay Rs. 350 per month to park one motorcycle by the contractors. Due to collection of parking fare we are losing customers. They are forced to pay Rs. 10 before entering the shop,” a shopkeeper near Raj Towers told The Hindu .
In fact at all the parking lots in city contractors have been collecting Rs. 10 for motorcycle when they should be collecting only Rs. 5. Contractors issue a token of Rs. 5 or Rs. 7 but are collecting Rs.10 even in front of parks.
On the other hand, malls in the city collect Rs. 500 per month from shop owners in it to park their vehicles in the cellars where the vehicles are protected from rain and sun. However, civic parking lots do not have such facility and vehicles have to be parked in the open.
We are asked to pay Rs. 350 per month to park one motorcycle by the contractors. Due to collection of parking fare we are losing customers. They are forced to pay Rs. 10 before entering the shop
Shopkeeper