the goan I network
MARGAO
Margao MLA Digambar Kamat on Tuesday batted for the re-introduction of pay parking on Margao roads “ a proposal which was abandoned by the Margao Municipal Council over a decade and half ago after strong protests by Youth Congress activists.
While the Margao MLA pointed out that pay parking is implemented in major cities, including Belagavi, Pune and Mumbai, Kamat had to encounter a question whether he would dare introduce the pay parking concept around the congested new markets and Gandhi market or on other roads.
The Margao Municipal Council had implemented pay parking in around 2002-03 when Kamat was the Urban Development Minister in the Manohar Parrikar government, and the BJP ruled the Margao Municipal Council headed by then chairperson Kamlini Painginkar.
It may be recalled that the youth Congress activists comprising of the incumbent GPCC chief along with workers Vithu Morajkar rode a motorcycle into the Margao Municipal building before parking the vehicle in the chamber of the MMC chairperson. The protest had later forced the MMC to keep the pay parking proposal in abeyance.
When the media sought to know whether the Congress party will accept his pay parking proposal, when the same was opposed tooth and nail by the party in the past, Kamat shot back saying “the Congress had opposed the pay parking project around a decade and half ago. Things have changed since the last 15 years, with lakhs of vehicles being added to the traffic on the roads.”
When it was pointed out to him that pay parking does not add a single inch of space, Kamat said the concept helps in doing away with haphazard parking and is intended at those who park their vehicles on the roads for long hours.
When further asked whether the parking woes can be attributed to the failure of the powers that be to provide multi-storied parking lots in the city, the Margao MLA shot back saying that he had sanctioned a grant of Rs 3 crore to the MMC to go for multi-storied parking out of the funds sanctioned under the Golden Jubilee program, but in vain.
Incidentally, though the Margao traffic cell had mooted the pay parking project around three years ago to the Civic body, the Goa Forward ruled Margao Municipal Council had preferred to keep the proposal in cold storage, aware that the proposal would invite strong opposition from the public.
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