Nagpur: Aimed at smooth flow of traffic, the NMC has prepared a plan to start a smart on-street pay and park at 70 locations on major roads in Nagpur City.
According to reports, the Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B has directed the NMC’s Traffic Department to float Expression of Interest (EoI) inviting operators to develop, operate and maintain pay and park at these locations. The Department is likely to float the EoI soon.
Sources in the civic body said that the pay and park will be state-of-the-art facilities. People will be able to know space availability at these locations before reaching there and can also book the same in advance. For the purpose, smart card will be introduced which will work at all locations and enable cashless transactions. Monthly and other pass systems will also be facilitated. NMC will ask for more innovative ideas from interested agencies, sources added.
The reports stated that the main motive behind the pay and park is to regulate parking of vehicles on major roads, especially in market areas. Pay and park will also help in easing traffic congestion. It will also help in promoting use of public transport services. Pay and park at 70 locations is phase-I of the Parking Policy approved by the civic body in 2017. Its implementation got stuck due to delay in preparation of detailed project report, which got approved recently.
According to reports, in 2017, the NMC General Body had also approved the charges to be levied for the pay and park. Two-wheelers will be charged Rs 5 for 2 hours and Rs 10 for up to 8 hours, four-wheelers Rs 10 for 2 hours and Rs 20 for up to 8 hours, bicycle Rs 2 for 2 hours and Rs 5 for up to 8 hours and Rs 5 for 2 hours and Rs 10 for up to 8 hours for three and five-wheeler commercial vehicles.
The NMC had implemented on-street pay and park \only at very few locations in the past including Wardha Road stretch between Lokmat Square and Panchsheel Square. Plans for on-street pay and park in many locations failed to take off as the NMC could not get operator to run the scheme and it also buckled under pressure of shopkeepers.
Developing off-street parking, especially multi-level automatic parking malls, is also part of the Parking Policy. But the civic body is yet to plan any off-street parking facilities. One such facility developed by the Nagpur Improvement Trust (NIT) next to Eternity Mall on Amravati Road has failed reportedly due to non-cooperation of the police.
Under the Parking Policy, there is also a plan to levy charges for parking in interior lanes across the city. Due to non-implementation of the Parking Policy, traffic congestion has increased to a great extent on major roads, especially in market areas like Dharampeth, Itwari, Sitabuldi, Mahal, Khamla etc.
Following are the major locations for pay and park under Phase-I:
* Variety Square to Law College Square
*Ravi Nagar Square to Futala T-point
*Lokmat Square to Panchsheel Square
*RBI Square to Shree Mohini Complex T-point
*Ashoka Hotel to Kamptee Road T-point
*Indora Square to Kamal Square
*Agrasen Chowk to Golibar Chowk
*Laxmibhuvan Square to Ram Nagar Square
*University Square to VCA Stadium
*Chhatrapati Square to Khamla Chowk
*Medical Square to Ashok Square
*Baidyanath Square to Ashok Chowk
*Gokulpeth Square to East High Court Road
*Congress Nagar T-Point to NMC Dhantoli Zone Office
*Manewada Square to Tukdoji Square
