NEW DELHI, Aug 25: In a first among the three civic bodies, usage of handheld devices will soon be made mandatory for contractors at parking lots in north Delhi corporation area to monitor activities and curb violation of norms there.
“We are in the process of finalising the specifications for introducing the usage of handheld devices by contractors at our parking lots. And, we’ll be making it mandatory for them in all our zones,” North Delhi Municipal Corporation public relations officer Yogendra Singh Mann told.
The specifications have been approved by the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Limited and within a week we are expected to get the official letter, following which, it will be implemented with immediate effect, he said.
The measure comes in the wake of collection of over Rs 9 lakh in penalty in the last five months from the different contractors for different kinds of violations.
North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) currently runs 116 parking lots and in the first phase, the measure will be implemented at 77 facilities. The rest 39 will slowly come under the fold as and when their old contracts expire.
“The contractors will have to introduce the device from their end only as we will only enforce its usage as a precondition on our contractors. We will be beginning with 77 parking lots as the rest have their old contracts yet to expire. But, as and when they do, they too will be brought under the fold,” Mann said.
Among the penalty collected from April-August period, the Mori Gate bus parking in the Civil Lines Zone was caught as the biggest offender with a fine of close to Rs 2.5 lakh.
Ramlila Maidan and Dangal Maidan in the City Zone followed with a collection of over Rs 1.25 lakh and close to Rs 1.6 lakh from them respectively, a NDMC report said.
Explaining the type of violations, Mann said, overcharging remained one of the repeated offences but there were five primary infringements which the Corporation has encountered over the years.
“The five basic violations we have found at the parking lots relate to — names of contractors not displayed, parking rates, contact details of grievance agents not displayed, staff not wearing uniforms and the area not being earmarked as specified under the norms with yellow lines,” he told.
To combat the irregularities, the NDMC apart from introducing the usage of the device is also implementing other measures.
“We have decentralised the power and now even a deputy commissioner can take actions in his area which earlier could only have been done by a commissioner.
“Also, the penalty on the first instance of offence is 25 per cent of the license fee, on second 50 per cent, on third 75, on fourth 100 and after that the contractor gets blocked and black-listed,” the public relations officer said.
Other measures taken include going for registered contractors where one-year license fee will be submitted by them as caution money and then another three-month license fee before getting the actual tender, he said.
On multi-level parking lots under the Corporation, he said, an eight-storeyed fully-automated car parking with a capacity of over 800 cars, in Kamla Nagar market area will soon be coming up.
While the biggest one among them is at Parade Ground with a capacity of 1200-1400 cars, the largest in terms of fully utilised is at Asaf Ali Road with 1000-1200 capacity.
Among other conventional multi-level parking lots in NDMC are — Church Mission Road, Gandhi Maidan and Asaf Ali Road. (PTI)
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