Contractor says project ‘unaffordable’, quits; PCMC plans to go for retendering

To address the aggravating parking issue, the PCMC started the Pay and Park plan in March 2021. The civic body identified 386 spots where it planned to set up parking lots in a phase-wise manner.

In the initial stage, it had planned to set up 80 parking lots. “However, we could start with only 10 parking lots initially,” officials said.

Gaikwad said there was a poor response to tenders when PCMC decided to choose a private operator for running the parking lots. “Finally, when we managed to choose a contractor, they could operate only for six to eight months. They first cited staff problems, then they did not receive police support to tow illegally parked vehicles… Now, they quit stating that the project was unaffordable,” he said.

According to the terms and conditions of the contract, the contractor was to take 50 per cent of the amount earned from “Pay and Park” facilities and hand over the remaining 50 per cent to PCMC.

PCMC had demarcated parking lots for the scheme at various spots like Pune-Mumbai Highway, Chapekar Chowk, Telco Road, Spine Road, Aundh-Ravet BRTS road, KSB Chowk, Auto Cluster-Kalewadi Phata.

Meanwhile, civic activists have slammed the civic body for a “non-serious” plan.

“The PCMC was never serious about implementing the Pay and Park scheme. Initially, it promised to set up parking lots at 386 spots. But in the past year, they ran the facility at only 10 spots,” said advocate Sushil Mancharkar.

Iklas Sayeed, a resident of Akurdi, said, “There is poor coordination between PCMC and traffic police. PCMC keeps blaming traffic police for not taking action against illegally parked vehicles while police blame PCMC for not demarcating proper parking lots. This has been going on for a long time with PCMC and police being non-serious about the whole issue. As a result, parking problems and traffic chaos continue in Pimpri-Chinchwad.”