The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has not completely dropped the idea of raising parking fees despite a setback earlier this month when it was forced to roll back increased rates.
Mayor Firhad Hakim told The Telegraph on Sunday that the civic body will approach the state government with figures on how much parking fee is collected in other major Indian cities and seek the government’s help in raising parking rates in Kolkata.
Hakim said the Rs 10 an hour — the current rate for four-wheelers — is too low and some increase in the rate is still possible.
The matter was discussed in last week’s mayoral council meeting, too, where Hakim expressed his intention to raise the parking fees, said a mayoral council member.
Any new increase in rates may not be as high as the last one, but some increase is necessary, sources said.
“We will do a comparative study of the parking rates in some Indian cities and then approach the state government with these rates. We will ask the state government what the parking rates in Calcutta should be,” Hakim said on Sunday.
“The value of properties is going up every day. The registration charges are also going up. I feel it is time to increase the parking rates, too,” Hakim told this newspaper.
Parking rates in Kolkata have remained unchanged for over a decade at least.
The rates in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore are higher than those in Kolkata.
In Delhi, the parking rate for cars is Rs 20 an hour in areas administered by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
The rate chart available on the website of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation shows the rates differ from one part of the city to another. The rates for the first hour of parking vary from Rs 15 to Rs 35 for cars and Rs 5 to Rs 10 for two-wheelers.
A resident of Bangalore said there, too, the parking rates — uniform throughout the day — differ from one pocket to another. “The rates range from Rs 30 an hour to Rs 15 an hour for four-wheelers and Rs 15 an hour to Rs 5 an hour for two-wheelers,” said the resident.
In Kolkata, the hiked rates for cars, which were finally rolled back, were Rs 20 an hour for the first two hours, Rs 40 an hour from the third till the fifth hour, and Rs 100 an hour after that.
On Sunday, Hakim also expressed his intent to have differential parking rates in Kolkata. “In areas with too much traffic and congestion, the charges could be higher than other places,” he said.
The KMC had raised parking fees in the city on April 1 but was forced to roll it back on April 7 after Trinamul Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh told a news conference that the rates were increased without the knowledge and consent of chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the party.
After the roll back, the previous rates — Rs 10 an hour for four-wheelers and Rs 5 an hour for two-wheelers, between 7am and 10pm — were restored. The rates are uniform across the city.
KMC sources said the civic body, which has been running short of funds, needs to generate funds and parking is a good source of revenue for any urban local body.
The KMC has set a target of raising Rs 100 crore from parking in the 2023-24 budget.
