Why pay to park, when it's free?

PMC's Rs 5-per-hour parking lot on JM Road has few takers after the civic body turned a nearby stretch into a free parking zone

PMC's Rs 5-per-hour parking lot on JM Road has few takers after the civic body turned a nearby stretch into a free parking zone
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The PMC's 20-storeyed parking lot on Jangli Maharaj Road has failed to ease the city's traffic woes. The reason being simple. In July, the civic body had turned a nearby stretch from Balgandharva to Deccan Road into a free parking zone.

Hence, the private car owners now prefer to park by the side of the road for free rather than pay Rs 5 per hour at this parking lot. As a result, the Rs 20-crore project is suffering huge losses.

Makrand Patil, the only caretaker of the lot, said, "The capacity of the parking lot is of 80 cars. But we do not get more than 20 cars a day on weekdays and 75 cars on the weekends."

Explaining the reason why people don't prefer to park their cars at the lot, he added, "It's not only about the money. Vehicle owners do not want to take the trouble of travelling all the way till here just to park their cars."

Other side
However, Sampada Bhangaonkar, an official of Ram Ratna Infrastructure Company that runs the parking lot, said, "Though, the number of cars have gone down on weekdays, we still manage to make profit on weekends."

Said a PMC official, who earlier worked with the parking department, "We have to think long-term. The city is growing at a fast pace and we might need the parking lot in the future."