The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : No takers for pre-paid parking tickets

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

No takers for pre-paid parking tickets

By T. Lalith Singh

HYDERABAD, JAN. 11. Two years after the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) launched what it termed panacea for all parking blues, the concept has fallen flat on its face with even Government organisations refusing to acknowledge it. With it, buying pre-paid parking tickets seems to be floundering too.

Hampered with limited parking sites of its own, and with Government organisations like the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) refusing to accept the tickets issued by the corporation and some commercial complex owners taking the matter to the court, there is a marked decline in the number of people opting to buy them.

When the MCH introduced the card in 2003, the number of tickets sold were 84,435 and an amount of Rs. 1.16 crore was realised but the number dwindled to 36,618 tickets the very next year and the revenue realised was to the tune of Rs. 61.67 lakhs in 2004.

Limited usage

The decline was result of the fact that pre-paid ticket was honoured only at the 107 parking places of the MCH. Those who purchased the tickets, costing Rs. 100 for two-wheeler and Rs. 200 for four-wheeler, realised that it was not accepted even at the Government Hospitals and offices, railway and bus stations, HUDA facilities, cinema theatres and also the commercial complexes.

Incentive fails

A carrot dangled by the Corporation in the form of an insurance cover of Rs. 50,000 for every pre-paid parking ticket buyer failed to enthuse the people as was evident in the drastic fall in the buyers last year.

"The parking tickets for this year are available at the 26 eSeva centres and the insurance cover is being offered now also," says the MCH Additional Commissioner, Vijay Kumar.

Efforts were on to make the tickets acceptable at more parking sites and discussions were being held, he adds.

More parking spaces

Though the MCH is hoping to identify and earmark more parking spaces in the city, it might end up closing down a couple of the present parking sites.

The traffic police has already sought shifting of some of the parking sites, including the one near Mahatma Gandhi statue in Secunderabad, as they were found to be adding to the traffic congestion.

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