In an effort to curb the illegal vehicle parking in Gurugram, city traffic police had been issuing strict warnings and heavy fines from past one year but it seems the attempt has done a little to the problem.
The Gurugram police said that this year, till August 31, they issued 1.23 lakh fines (challans) for illegal parking. However, despite penalising violators, people continue to park their vehicles along the roads and other available spaces because there is lack of parking lots in key market and business areas of the city.
“Our aim is to decongest roads and that is the reason we are extensively issuing fines to people who park vehicles on the roadside, covering a major part of the road,” Police commissioner KK Rao said, revealing that they have collected an unprecedented Rs 14.5 crore in penalties from violators between January and August 31 this year.”
As reported by a national tabloid The Hindu, officials said that the rise in revenue is due to increased stricter patrolling at key intersections. Most of the amount was collected during ‘Zero Tolerance Day’ — observed three times so far in May, June, and August.
Also read: Link car, 2-wheeler sale to income to harness vehicular population and increase tax revenue
Offenders, Rao said, were penalised on the spot — Rs 600 is the penalty for illegal parking, Rs 100 for driving without a seat belt and Rs 100 for driving without a helmet.
Motorists tend to avoid even the 44 parking lots authorised by the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), formerly Haryana urban development authority, as the minimum parking fee is ₹50, which goes up to ₹100 per hour after the first three hours.
MCG commissioner Yashpal Yadav said they have initiated the process of building three multilevel parking lots in the city, which will help address the parking issues to some extent.
