PANAJI
Wardens working for the pay-parking contractor of the Corporation of the City of Panaji are facing a hard time with vehicle users frequently getting into confrontations with them in newer areas of the capital city where charging for parking was introduced over the last one week.
In the city’s main square around the municipal market there have been hourly confrontations between vehicle users and the wardens. At least five new stretches of streets in this area were introduced to charged parking last week.
According to one eye-witness account, a lawyer occupying space in one the high-rise buildings in the market area also got into an intense argument with a warden who punched a POS parking ticket.
“The confrontation led to the lawyer calling the police to resolve the issue,” the eyewitness told The Goan.
Earlier last week at least a dozen new areas in the capital city were introduced to charged parking including the ‘smart road’ from Bal Bhavan to the Caculo Mall junction. Here too, the pay-parking wardens faced stiff resistance from vehicle users.
The flanks of these stretches of public roads “ thirteen in all “ were notified as ‘pay-parking zones’ by the North Goa Collector on the recommendation of the CCP back in January this year.
It was the third phase of the CCP’s city-wide pay-parking plan which included the road alongside the GCCI building and Vidyut Bhavan on the periphery of the Azad Maidan, the road from the Government Printing Press junction to the CCP building, along Govinda building and in Boca de Vaca, along the Mahalakshmi temple and streets in the market area in front of Navhind Bhavan, in front of Panaji Market entrance, Delmon Hotel, Navatara Hotel and the stretch from IDBI Bank to the 2STC Headquarters.
The right to collect parking fees in these 13 spots of the third phase requires the contractor to pay CCP a consolidated Rs 1.62 crore over the next three years.
Meanwhile, more areas in the fourth phase of the pay-parking scheme have also been notified in June but the tendering process to contract out the rights to collect the fees is still incomplete.
The fourth phase areas include the road stretch around the Maruti Mandir in Miramar, stretches in St Inez along 18th June Road near the Pharmacy College, at Tonca from the St Inez Church up to the Thomas Garage and the stretch of road from St Inez Cemetery to Madhuban complex.
