North corporation starts blacklisting parking contractors

Standing Committee chairman Mohan Bhardwaj directed officials to blacklist contractors who have failed to pay the monthly licence fee. At these sites, people will not be charged any money for parking their vehicles till such time as fresh contracts are allotted.

“We have identified at least 12 parking lots where people would be allowed to park their vehicles without paying parking fees because of the dispute between the corporation and the contractors,” Bhardwaj said. These sites include the Delite Cinema parking lot on Asaf Ali Road and the Netaji Subhash Place parking lot.

While the corporation recently collected Rs 2.5 crore in dues from parking contractors, more than Rs 6 crore is still pending.
Bhardwaj said contractors who default on payment will not be considered for fresh contracts by the corporation. Admitting the existence of the “parking cartel” in the city, he said the corporation was considering open tendering as a solution to the city’s parking problems. “We will monitor parking sites through physical checks and whether a politician or an officer, whoever is involved, will be booked,” he said.

The North corporation presently has 115 parking sites. Till now, 51 sites have been identified where contractors have defaulted on payment. The number could go up as more defaulters are identified.