Tenders opened for pay and park spots’ maintenance

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has opened tenders to award contracts for maintenance of pay and park spots in 47 places in the A ward of South Mumbai, following several incidences in this area where impostors posed as pay and park collectors and charged money for free parking spots. This has opened up parking space for about 8,197 vehicles in the A ward.

Sources from the BMC said these 47 parking spots would be able to house 5,650 four-wheeler vehicles and about 2,547 two-wheeler vehicles in this area. This is expected to generate revenue of over Rs 1.14 crore per month.

Moreover, to facilitate municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta’s vision of ‘cycle to work’, each of these 47 spots will reserve 10 parking spaces exclusively for bicycles. This way about 470 bicycles can be safely parked in these 47 spaces. The areas that have been identified to provide free parking spots for bicycles include the Mantralaya area, Hutatma Chowk, the area around Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Fort area, Churchgate, Gateway of India area. These areas have been identified as they have heavy traffic in the peak hours of the day, and promoting use of bicycles will take some load off the streets, sources said.

A civic official from the BMC said, “South Mumbai, especially the A ward, attracts a lot of tourists during the day and in the evening. Besides, all major offices are here as well. This venture is not a pan-Mumbai venture, and we have selected A ward for these reasons.”

Even though Colaba and Kala Ghoda residents have persistently complained that these areas lack free parking spaces for residents, the BMC is yet to take a call on that front. The civic official said this provision has been made only for commercial parking spaces.