South Mumbai says ‘no’ to contractors for pay and park

Mumbai: South Mumbai citizens have said a big “no” to involvement of contractors in BMC’s new pay and park policy for residents. They have instead demanded a local pay and park supervision body to monitor parking in their area. They have suggested use of “dead roads” in the vicinity for night parking.

Residents have opposed the controversial pay and park policy in A ward saying that major stakeholders including locals have not been taken into confidence and there are several lacunae in the policy. In a meeting with local BJP MLA Raj Purohit, residents prepared a draft containing suggestions to make the policy “more effective”. In the draft, they demanded that representatives of BMC, traffic police, Mumbai police and residents be included in the supervision body.

Mr Purohit said, “We do not want any contractors in residential areas. Feedback has not been sought from local residents, who will be affected most. The policy also lacks inputs from traffic police and Mumbai police, who maintain law and order. If anything goes wrong, who will the residents approach! There is absolutely no clarity on the guidelines of the proposed policy.” Apart from a local supervision body, residents have also suggested utilisation of dead roads for reserved parking in the night. Dead roads are the ones in commercial areas that remain vacant during the night.

Mr Purohit said, “If the cars of a particular society outnumber the parking slots available, what is the solution! To overcome this problem, we have suggested using dead roads in zones like Marine Drive, Regal to Sassoon Dock, Crawford Market to Fountain, Mantralaya to Cuffe Parade, and Marine Lines to Queens Road for night parking for nearby residential areas.” Residents have demanded that residential parking rates be slashed from Rs 2,000 per month to Rs 560. They have also asked for 24-hour parking slots for residential parking. “However, the residential parking scheme is entirely optional and will be implemented only after local residents apply for it,” said a senior civic official.