PMC's drive for two wheeler-parking has failed to kick off as planned

Pay and Park. What's that?

PMC's drive for two wheeler-parking has failed to kick off as planned

The PMC's plans of enforcing pay and park for two wheelers seems to remain only on paper. The drive which was supposed to have kicked off yesterday has been unsuccessful. Reason? There seems to be a lack of co-ordination between PMC and sub contractors.

Justifying the delay, Shrinivas Bonala, Traffic Planner, PMC, said that the tendering process of appointing sub-contractors has already been done and some of the roads have already started the drive even before January 11.

But when MiD DAY visited one of the highest traffic congested Bajirao Road, we found that the Pay and Park drive has not been started.

Bonala said, "I did not find time to visit any of these sites as I was busy with the PMC budget meetings."

Bonala's assistant Nitin Sable, however, assured that the drive will start in the next 7 days.

Piyush Shah, chief contractor, Sanchet Construction who was given the contract to collect money by issuing parking tickets on behalf of PMC, said, "We have to create the basic infrastructure before starting the actual enforcement of pay and park. In the next five days we will mark the area with paints and also the adjoining 10 roads linked to Bajirao road," he said.

Manoj Patil, DCP Traffic, Police, said, "It's high time to enforce parking for two wheelers in Pune. PMC should take up the dense populated areas like Laxmi Road, F C Road and M G Road. Both PMC and Cantonment should raise their current parking rates as well, so that vehicles are not parked for longer periods."

Patil also emphasised the fact that to ease the traffic in Pune roads, people should use public transport system.