Crackdown on illegal parking

Sunday , Mar 14, 2010

Coming to the rescue of Delhiites who are often fleeced by the parking mafia, that charges them an exorbitant amount for parking their vehicles, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi has asked Delhi traffic police to crack down on illegal parking sites and remove such sites within 15 days time.

He has also asked them to submit a status report in this regard.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), which is facing a loss to the tune of Rs. 200 crore per year due to illegal parking sites, had written to the L-G office, asking him to intervene in the matter two months ago.

"The L-G has asked the traffic police to remove such illegal parking sites and encroachments at the earliest. We had written to the L-G office as a number of illegal parking sites are operational in areas where the traffic police didn't allow

us to operate our parking lots," said a senior Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) official.

"We have more than 200 legal surface parking sites functional in the city at present, while the number of illegal parking sites is double that," he added.

"We will comply with the order and submit a status report," said Rajan Bhagat, spokesperson, Delhi Police.

The civic agency is hopeful that once the illegal parking sites are identified and removed by the traffic police, it will take over those sites.

In January, the civic agency had also planned to legalise a number of unauthorised parking sites to create more parking space in the city.

The civic agency had sent a list of 52 illegal parking sites to the L-G office that are under the parking mafia's

control, in areas such as Defence Colony, Nehru Place, Hamilton Road, Kailash Colony, Kalkaji, Sheikh Sarai and Lajpat Nagar Central Market, among others.

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