A motorcyclist receives his parking fee receipt at the Unit-III Big Bazaar parking lot in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 14: Shekhar Rout, an engineering student who came to Big Bazaar on Sunday with his friends said that he was asked by the parking lot manager to pay Rs 3 for keeping his bike in the municipal corporation designated parking space. However, the price printed on the ticket was Rs 2.

“I asked the manager about the extra one rupee and he told me nonchalantly that they have been collecting it from everybody. He said I could park my vehicle elsewhere if I was not willing to pay the extra amount.”

Like Rout, thousands of others end up paying extra to parking lot owners in different parts of the city. Despite complaints, the authorities continue to keep their eyes shut and the arbitrary collection of money at these parking lots goes on.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has given clear instructions to parking lot operators to stick to its directive of charging Rs 2 from two-wheelers and Rs 10 from four-wheelers for a period of four hours. But the operators with contract of these parking areas set their own rules collect money at will. While at some parking lots, they collect one rupee extra from motorbike owners and Rs 5 more from cars, at other places, they charge even more.

One such place is the Khandagiri foothill where the parking lot operator demands much more than the existing tariff. The situation is similar at Unit-I and Unit-II.

“They take extra money from everybody and no one questions them. The operators are also rude with people,” said Rudra Pratap Nandi, a private company employee.

However, the parking lot managers say they have to make some extra money because they pay huge bribes to land the parking lot contracts through auctions. Besides, they point out, not all the people come with their vehicles to the BMC-designated parking lots. Many park at places where they will not be charged.

“Consequently, recovering our money is a problem. If we stick to the BMC norms, we will face losses. That’s why we have to raise the fee by one rupee or a little more. But we keep it within reasonable limits,” said a parking lot contractor adding that people hardly protest. He even suggested that the BMC should be practical and raise the fee.

The city has more than 50 parking lots including 30, which run on auction basis, and 15 institutional parking lots. Others are managed directly by the BMC.

Srimant Mishra, project officer (JNNURM) cell of BMC, who also takes care of the licencing section, said they had not received any complaints about high parking charges of late. “Whenever we get a complaint, we send our supervisors and conduct raids. We also warn the contractors. We can cancel their contracts,” said Mishra.

However, officials in BMC said that the current parking fee structure was not practical and needed revision. “The process of users’ fee revision and rate revision is going on and with time, things will be streamlined,” said a senior officer of the corporation.