GANDHINAGAR: Despite getting written direction from the state government all municipal corporations in the state are dragging their feet over preparing city parking policies and action plans. Except Surat, no other municipal corporation in the state has any parking policy or action plan.
The state road and transport department has directed all the municipal corporations to prepare detailed written city parking policies to improve traffic management in the cities. However, except Surat all other municipal corporations namely Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Junagadh, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Jamnagar are going slow on the issue.
Sunaina Tomar, principal secretary, ports & tourism said, “The state road safety council and the state government as a part of the Supreme Court’s direction have directed all the stakeholder agencies to take measures to improve road safety of the people. Parking policy is a key element in ensuring safe traffic management, so the council has directed all municipal corporations to have clear parking policy along with clear action plan to implement the policy.”
“In the next road safety council meeting a detailed review will be taken of each corporation about the parking policy,’’ Tomar added.
The ‘Parking Policy’ for Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) was approved by the state government in December 2018. Even after a year has gone by, other municipal corporations have not submitted their parking policies.
In the Surat parking policy, the parking rates for roadside parking have been fixed according to the National Urban Transport Policy – 2006 (NUTP). Parking rates for two-wheeler, three-wheelers, cars, light and heavy vehicles have been fixed according to their parking duration. The collected parking charges are being utilized for developing parking and transport facilities.
Date: October 24, 2019
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