Chennai: If anyone asks you to pay for parking on city streets from today, say no. And if they try to force you to pay, contact the GCC helpline 1913 or raise the issue via the civic body’s social media handles. GCC’s contract with Texco to manage and collect parking fees in designated city locations expired on Sunday and it hasn’t been renewed because of complaints of overcharging and corruption. So, no parking fees will be collected citywide starting Monday. Authorities plan to adopt the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) parking policy in the future.“We received multiple complaints against Texco regarding nuisances and double charging for vehicles parked on the roads. While the civic body earns around 200 crore in revenue through various streams, only 2 crore comes from parking charges. We do not want scams. We decided to bar the contractor and not renew the contract, which ends on Sunday,” said GCC commissioner J Kumaragurubaran.There have been frequent complaints that the private contractor charged more than the rates fixed by the civic body and that staff were rude when questioned. “Recently, the contract workers charged 30 per hour for a two-wheeler instead of the official 5 per hour. The staff were rude and refused to issue receipts,” said K Balamurali, a resident of West Mambalam.“We asked Texco to withdraw its personnel from the field. We will study the parking model implemented by CUMTA, and if it proves effective, it will be adopted citywide,” the commissioner added. Recently, corporation council approved CUMTA’s pilot project for a sensor-based pavement parking model. This system will utilise cameras to automatically read vehicle licence plates and manage parking slots.
