The Greater Chennai Corporation has increased the parking charges by 200% in the commercial area of Pondy Bazaar.
It has increased the charges from ₹20 to ₹60 an hour for cars parked on Thyagaraya Road. The multi-level car parking in the same area will be cheaper, with only ₹20 an hour.
Corporation Deputy Commissioner (Revenue and Finance) Vishu Mahajan said the revision was done in respect of only one road in the commercial area of T. Nagar, outside the multi-level car parking. “So, parking on the road will be costlier than at the multi-level car parking. There are 98 slots for on-road parking along Thyagaraya Road,” he said. The charges for motorcycles have been increased from ₹5 to ₹15 an hour.
For all other roads, the charges are the same, with ₹20 per hour for cars and ₹5 for motorcycles.
To execute projects to provide smart parking in the public-private partnership mode under the National Smart Cities Mission, which was launched in 2015, the Chennai Corporation increased the parking charges for cars from ₹5 per hour to ₹20 per hour, pointing to the need for modernising the parking spaces.
On Tuesday, the Corporation Council passed a resolution to empanel new service-providers for the on-street parking management system. This was because of the current service-providers did not perform well. The contract was awarded in 2018. Under it, 12,000 ECS (equivalent car space) must be completed. The civic body has given permission for 13,500 ECS after drawings were submitted. But the service-providers have not met the target.
The civic body has also decided to penalise service-providers for failure to comply with the terms and conditions of agreements and to meet key performance indicators. Upon every proven instance of overcharging or misbehaviour by attenders at the parking lots, the service-providers will be fined ₹5,000.
