Lesson not learnt

Randomly parked vehicles,absence of attendants and overcrowded parking lots is a common sight in most of the paid parking lots in Chandigarh.

The Municipal Corporation has issued numerous guidelines to ensure smooth functioning of the parking lots. Recently,the civic body even amended the guidelines and introduced fines for various violations.

But with faulty implementation,these guidelines do not serve the purpose.

Impressive guidelines
On the face of it,these guidelines look quite impressive. For example,parking lots should have clearly demarcated slots for two-wheelers and four-wheelers and parking attendants need to be present at every 50 metres. If the attendants are missing,a fine of Rs 500 is to be imposed — attendants without uniform also attract the same penalty for the contractor.

Also,tokens must be given with the parking slips at the entrance of the parking lot. These tokens should be collected by the attendants to guide the vehicles to their designated slots.

Further,contractor must submit the list of attendants to the MC — failure to do this will attract fine of Rs 2,000 — who should be present in the parking lot from 8 am to 12 midnight (violation attracts fine of Rs 500).

The contractors must also install CCTV cameras at the entry and exit points of the parking lots — violation attracts fine of Rs 5,000.

Condition on the ground
But a visit to any of the parking lots shows that scant regard is paid to these guidelines,despite the fines.

Usually,an attendant is present at the entrance,who issues a parking slip. After that,the vehicle owner is left to fend for herself. Two-wheelers and four-wheelers are parked adjacent to each other and no attendant is in sight.

At times,parking slips are issued even when there is no vacant slot in the parking lot. Pooja,a resident,says on numerous occasions one simply has to leave as there is no space.

“Wrongly parked vehicles make it difficult to manoeuvre through the parking lot. Instead of only being bothered about issuing parking slips,the contractors should make an effort to ensure that the vehicles get space. Going to markets is a nightmare these days,” she said.

In many parking lots,CCTV cameras are not installed — and wherever these are installed,most do not function.

A passage demarcated by a yellow line has been created in the parking lots for fire tenders and other emergency vehicles. But almost always,vehicles are parked on the yellow line.

“There need to be periodic checks at the parking lots. Better coordination between the contractors and the civic body is required. In absence of any checks,the conditions are deteriorating; collective effort is missing,” councillor Harjinder Kaur said.

Councillor Brig K S Chandpuri (Retd) said a committee was needed to be constituted to conduct regular checks. “It should comprise councillors and officials. Earlier,there was a paid parking committee that was working effectively. But the committee is no longer functioning. In fact,there have been instances when I got stuck in parking lots due to haphazard parking,” Chandpuri said.

But a civic body official maintained that if too many checks are conducted,the contractors might give up their contracts. “Checks are conducted at regular intervals and contractors are warned to follow the guidelines,” he claimed.