A Round Trip To Delhi Is Cheaper Than BMC’s New No-Parking Fine

Parking a car in a no-parking zone in Mumbai may leave you digging deep into your wallet after the city’s civic body rolled out a steep hike in penalty.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation on July 7 raised the fine for parking violations to Rs 10,000, more than the average return fare between Delhi and Mumbai.

The civic body has classified no-parking zones under two categories for this purpose:

• The first will be areas that fall within a 500-metre radius of designated public parking lots.
• The second will be all roads connecting any two important highways.

Errant parking has slowed the traffic flow in an already-congested Mumbai, the civic body’s June 19 circular had said. The BMC hopes that the new penalty will not only act as a deterrent but also instill discipline in vehicle owners.

The BMC has also hired private contractors to ensure smooth execution of the plan. The parking fine has been split up into five categories and ranges from Rs 5,000-23,000. The fine covers heavy motor vehicles, medium motor vehicles, cars, three-wheelers and bikes.

The civic body has collected over Rs 8 lakh in penalty from 107 illegally parked vehicles since July 7, according to PTI.

The municipal corporation has also set up public parking lots in corporate and residential buildings. In Mumbai’s business district of Lower Parel, the BMC has set up parking facilities in commercial buildings like Indiabulls Finance Center and Lodha World Towers.

The BMC said it has 146 parking facilities across the city which can be used to park around 34,000 vehicles. But given that there are over 9 lakh cars and more than 19 lakh registered two-wheelers in the city, the mismatch is immense.

While some vehicle owners believe the fine is the only way to get people serious about parking discipline, most cab drivers as well as Mumbai's famous kaali peeli taxi operators said the amount is unfair.