‘Overcharging, misbehaviour’: Top problems at parking lots in Chandigarh

It was followed by “high pilferage” issue where it was said that there is absolutely “improper IT system implementation and loose operational control leads to heavy pilferage”. The third was “non-performing SLAs” which meant improper contract management and enforcement was another issue that the administration was grappling with.

The Chandigarh civic body has been maintaining some of the major parking lots since February after the parking contractors’ contract expired and the term ended. After that, the MC got to know that one of the contractors had even given fake bank guarantee and then the parking scam came to light. The CBI is already investigating the parking scam and has obtained all the documents pertaining to the parking issue.

Of the 89 parking lots, around 30 are being managed by the civic body at the moment. Parking lots in the city are divided into two zones – 32 in Zone 1 and 57 in Zone 2. In 2020, the MC auctioned both zones for three years for around Rs 10 crore annually. The contract of both zones expired on January 30 and since then parking lots have been running for free, following which it was decided to let the MC take charge and earn revenue.

Chandigarh Municipal Corporation officials had stated that it would be a stop-gap arrangement and the parking fee will remain the same — Rs 14 for a four-wheeler and Rs 7 for a two-wheeler.

The civic body had hired around 400 people from a private agency to run all the prominent paid parking lots, including the ones in sectors 17, 22, 34, and 20, and they began from mid-February.