Cuttack, Feb. 17: The municipal corporation has auctioned the first hourly paid parking area in the city for Rs 1.37 crore against a reserved price of Rs 70,000 set for a year.
"The contractor has been allowed to collect parking fee on an hourly basis between 9am and 11pm," commissioner of Cuttack Municipal Corporation Gyanaranjan Das told The Telegraph today.
The hourly paid parking has been introduced on February 13. Commuters parking their four-wheelers on both sides of Nayasarak, the stretch between Petrachak and Balu Bazar, have to shell out Rs 10 per hour.
Similarly, autorickshaws and trolley rickshaws are being charged Rs 10 per hour, while the parking fee for scooters and motorcycles is Rs 5 per hour. Commuters parking their cycles are being charged Rs 2 per hour.
"Hourly paid parking introduced on the basis of recommendation of the traffic management committee for Cuttack is expected to be a deterrent to idle parking of vehicles, particularly four-wheelers on both sides of the main road, which have been causing congestion," the municipal commissioner said.
Nayasarak is one of the biggest commercial zones in the city with over 250 shops ranging from pharmaceutical, cloth and paper wholesalers and garments and jewellery stores intermingled with residential buildings.
Following directions from the high court to resolve frequent congestion on Nayasarak, traffic police had introduced one-side parking (left and right on alternate days). One-way traffic from high court-Balu Bazar side for four-wheelers and three-wheelers was also tried out.
"But the traffic measures had failed to put a check on the congestion as both sides of the road continued to be mostly occupied round the clock by four-wheelers belonging to the traders and two-wheelers and cycles leaving little or no space for other commuters to park their vehicles," member of traffic management committee assistant police commissioner (traffic) Pradeep Kumar Dalai told The Telegraph today.
"However, residents of Nayasarak, who do not have their own garage space, can park their vehicles for free on the roadside but between 11pm and 9am," Dalai said.
The Nayasarak Mahadev Puja Committee had filed a petition in the high court seeking intervention against it. "Hourly paid parking system is unjustified and arbitrary as the civic body has not discussed with the committee or traders before introducing it," committee president Sanjay Sahu said. Hearing on the petition has been fixed on February 19.