Bigshots corner GHMC’s parking lots

While most GHMC parking lot contracts are won with the help of connections in the bureaucratic and political circles, the tenders for the private parking slots see stiff competition, as it is a money-minting business, say insiders.

In both sectors, though the sealed bids are in the name of different people, a lot of them are said to be benamis or sub-contractors.

“It is true that they do have connections with corporators and officials. Also, the contractors are mostly repeated every year i. e., almost the same people win the bids every year,” said a senior official from the GHMC. Close to one-third of the contractors obtained the lease without depositing the mandatory 50 per cent of the amount this year, as per GHMC data updated in March. Though officials said that the lease amount is duly collected within a few months, the rule stands flouted and the contractors didn’t shell out the required amount owing to their connections.

A parking lot lease, depending on the area, costs anywhere between `50,000 and `15 lakh, and sometimes more. The private parking lot leases cost more as there is no restriction on how much a private player can charge.

In the GHMC parking zones, rules like contractors mustn’t encroach on public land apart from what has been allotted to them; they shouldn’t obstruct traffic etc. are flouted across all the zones.

Only a few have been fined since December last year, according to officials.

A zonal officer from GHMC said, “At times, political or official pressure prevents lower rung officials from penalising defaulters. However, it should be considered that these things can’t be monitored on a daily basis.”