New Delhi: To address persistent complaints of pilferage, overcharging and failure to issue parking slips at its parking lots, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) plans to operate all such facilities using its system-fed POS machines.“We expect to launch the pilot project within the next 15 days. While POS machines are already mandatory at parking lots, they will now be integrated with MCD’s server to eliminate any scope for corruption, misuse and illegal parking,” an official said, adding that discussions have already been held with banks to implement a robust payment mechanism.At present, parking fees are collected by attendants employed by contractors who, in turn, pay a monthly licence fee to MCD.The civic body also plans to popularise a ‘no receipt, no parking’ campaign to encourage users to insist on payment receipts. According to officials, this would help curb overcharging and discourage parking attendants from collecting unauthorised fees. The initiative follows repeated disputes at parking lots.“If parking attendants claim POS machines are not functioning or are not connected to our server, appropriate action will be taken. A feedback system will also be provided to users. These reforms will help us get accurate data on revenue collection and vehicle footfall at each parking lot, so that realistic reserve prices can be determined while inviting fresh tenders,” the official said.In another effort to improve revenue collection, MCD has decided not to grant extensions to contractors operating 55 parking lots and has floated fresh tenders for these sites. Officials said several contractors had continued operating the lots for nearly two years after expiry of their contracts at old licence rates.“Some contractors had not even cleared pending dues and arrears for nearly two years, leading to litigation in certain cases. We are aggressively pursuing these matters and resolving disputes to recover outstanding revenue,” the official said.MCD said it recently recovered arrears of Rs 4.5 crore from the contractor operating the Parade Ground multi-level parking facility and Rs 2.6 crore from the Lajpat Nagar surface parking site. With these measures, the civic body expects its monthly parking revenue to increase from about Rs 2.3 crore to Rs 4.7 crore.To improve parking management and curb illegal parking, MCD has also identified 49 new sites for surface parking facilities. “Of these, 32 sites are located on MCD or PWD land. The tendering process will begin shortly. The remaining 17 sites are on DDA land, and the authority will be approached for transfer of the land,” the official said, adding that sites for nine multi-level parking have also been identified.MCD currently operates about 430 authorised parking lots, including 14 multi-level parking facilities, across Delhi. Together, these sites can accommodate nearly 51,000 vehicles and play a significant role in managing traffic congestion in commercial and residential areas.
