Pay Rs 5,000 – 15,000 for illegal parking

The BMC will focus on heavy vehicles rather than cars and bikes to send out the message that illegal parking will be dealt with strictly and, at the same time, minimize inconveniencing Mumbaikars.

MUMBAI: From Sunday, owners of heavy vehicles such as trucks, tempos, buses and, to a lesser extent, cars and bikes will be slapped with fines ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 if found within 500 metres of the over 20 public parking lots (PPLs) in the city. The BMC plans to levy high penalty on illegal parking to free up roads of traffic jams. For the second phase of the initiative, the BMC has already begun to identify arterial roads, other than those around PPLs, to be marked as no parking zones too.

Trucks, buses to pay Rs 5,000 to Rs 15,000 for illegal parking from today

Initially, the BMC will focus on heavy vehicles rather than cars and bikes to send out the message that illegal parking will be dealt with strictly and, at the same time, minimize inconveniencing Mumbaikars. BMC officials have clarified that the intention behind the move is not to collect fines or harass motorists but ensure that roads around PPLs remain free of traffic snarls.

“Many of these PPLs have a huge parking capacity which is not used as motorists choose not to park there to avoid walking some distance to their destination. Therefore, in an effort to encourage motorists to make use of these designated parking spaces, we have to decided to impose a heavy penalty. Our intention is not to harass motorists and therefore we will first try and inform them about the penalty when they park illegally. If despite requests they do not cooperate and continue to park outside PPLs, they will have to pay a penalty,” said a civic official.

Apart from hiring former staff of private security agencies to help them implement the policy, the BMC also plans to rope in clean-up marshals and others to create awareness. “There are 23 parking lots as of now. Of these, seven are free and, at others, parking charges vary depending on the location and footfalls,” said an official.

For the second phase of the initiative, the BMC sent out a message to all its officials on Saturday to provide a list of arterial roads in every ward and notify these as no parking zones. Officials have been told to mark the start and end points so that the list can be forwarded to traffic police for issuance of a no parking area notification.

“Freeing up of roads will help movement of emergency vehicles such as ambulances and fire engines,” said an official.

Source: http://bit.ly/2XPC7kT