After KMC implemented “municipal parking” system in Kathmandu, which permits vehicle owners to park for free for a limited time in major city centres like Durbarmarg and New Road, things have gotten worse. Vehicle owners have been flouting the time regulation and parking their vehicles for hours, especially in Durbarmarg and New Road .
“Before with the paid parking system, at least people would be aware that they are being charged on an hourly basis and wouldn’t relieve the spot for others when unnecessary. But now with first come first basis, most of the vehicles are parked from the morning till the evening, denying other vehicles parking spots” said Poudel.
In another incident related to KMC’s free parking system, just over kilometre away at Pako in New Road, Ranjeet Shrestha was charged Rs 20 for parking his motorbike. Pako, one of the busiest areas in Kathmandu, was also declared a free parking area, but individuals with fake ticket slips are still seen collecting money from the vehicle owners.
“I had to pay the ticket guy, as he was collecting money from others, too. There hasn’t been any medium to notify us about free and non-free parking zones. Sometimes it’s free while other times it isn’t” said Shrestha.
With these incidents recurring regularly, the free parking system introduced by KMC suggests it has been envisioned in an ad-hoc basis. When the metropolis took the overall responsibility of the parking management, it promised to promote self parking system, bring in municipal parking in busy areas, introduce time card and deploy manpower, among others. However, due to lack of monitoring, parking at KMC designated free zones has become erratic and mismanaged.
KMC officials argued that the plans require some time to execute. “It is impossible to put an entry point system with time limit, in an open area like Durbarmarg.” said Dhanapati Sapkota, the chief of Implementation Department at KMC. “We also require machines, but we do not have the manpower or the budget at the moment” he added.
Right now, KMC has deployed just 30 people to manage the 20 most chaotic parking spaces in the city which are under its jurisdiction. Most of these parking spaces witness the similar problem of unidentified individuals making random collections.
Sapkota said that the vehicle owners should also realise the importance of the time limit and grant others the opportunity to park. “We have installed the sign-boards with the time limits, and it’s the civic duty for people to follow the rules” said Sapkota.
Though not in favour of the vehicle owners, the free parking has become a boon for the metropolis. Just two and a half months since introduction of free parking , the KMC has collected fines worth Rs 2.29 million (Rs 30,000 per day) from vehicle owners for parking in non-designated spots. The collection comes from fines imposed for motorcycles parked haphazardly and in defiance of demarcation in 20 major parking areas in the city.
KMC has charged 2,297 motorcycles so far. Last month alone, the KMC collected Rs 1.21 million from motorcyclists for parking violation. Earlier, when the KMC rented out its parking spaces to private operators, it fetched Rs 4.5 million annually in revenues. Currently, KMC has 73 parking spaces among them 20 are the major ones, including in Durbarmarg, Dharmapath, Sukrapath, Sundhara, Khicha Pokhari and Pako in New Road.
These parking lots were previously contracted to private companies, but KMC revoked their license after finding out about widespread irregularities, two months ago.
No comments:
Post a Comment