Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

MCH to ring in the new year with parking passes

By Suresh Krishnamoorthy

Hyderabad, Dec. 19. The Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad is all set to put the new system of authorised parking in place. Come January 1, 2003, Hyderabadis can look forward to a whole new system, which does away with parking tickets and ushers in the use of passes.

Officials are looking forward, confident of a quantum leap in revenue from Rs. 1.13 crores from the 110 authorised parking lots, as of now, to a minimum of 16. 95 crores a year from the sale of parking passes alone.

The projection has been arrived at by taking into account about 9.45 lakh two-wheelers and three-wheelers, two lakh four wheelers and 30,000 bigger vehicles.

The price of the passes has been fixed at Rs. 100 for two and three-wheelers, Rs. 300 for four-wheelers and Rs. 500 for contract carriages (light commercial vehicles like vans and mini- buses). The system has been touted as a never-before, first-of- its-kind model. The e-Seva has been entrusted with the job of designing, printing and issue of the parking cards, which will be valid for one year, said Chitra Ramachandran, MCH Commissioner.

There has been talk about bringing to heel all those indulging in the practice of unauthorisedly collecting parking fees from all those visiting commercial complexes, office complexes and the like in the twin cities.

It was said that the parking attendant possesses a letter of authorisation and an official identity card, which had to be produced on demand.

But strong-arm tactics by the operators, who seem to be assisted by local `dadas' have scared people from asking the attendants to produce the official letters and identity cards.

Despite talk of coming down on unauthorised operators with an iron hand, cases of cheating have been booked only against 20 people so far. They are under investigation by the police.

As if the officialdom wants to forget all about its own inadequacies in bringing the unscrupulous operators to heel, the new system has several aspects designed to make it look very attractive.

"We will soon start an advertising campaign asking people to buy the cards. It will pick up slowly. They will realise the advantage of having a card with which they can park their vehicles anywhere,'' Mrs. Ramachandran said.

The MCH will shortly issue a notification announcing the new system, after which the sale of cards will start. Asked about the monitoring network, Mrs. Ramachandran said that they would be appointing Traffic Wardens using private security agencies.

"We shall also be using members of the Development of Women in Urban Areas groups. Of course, we shall be actively enlisting the services of the police and the Transport Department in implementing the system'', she said.

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