Mayor directs to allow car parking at 2 add’l floors in Somponno

Kolkata: In the wake of complaints of rampant illegal parking in and around the multi-level car parking facility ‘Somponno’ near Alipore Zoo, Mayor Firhad Hakim has issued directions for opening two additional floors reserved for a local hospital in the area for common people.

“Two floors in Somponno have been reserved for vehicles of a local hospital which more or less remain empty. Considering the huge rush of people, particularly for visiting the zoo during winter, parking touts are having a field day by parking cars in and around the multi-level car parking facility. So, I have directed to open the two floors earmarked for the hospital for parking. Manpower will be deployed on these two floors for collection of parking fees and the income will go to the exchequer of Hidco (Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation) which has developed the state-of-the-art six-floor multi-level car parking facility,” Hakim, who is also the chairman of Hidco’ said.

He added that in the days to come, Hidco will be floating a tender for selecting an agency to handle parking of these two floors of parking space which presently remains unutilised. “I have asked the police to ensure that such illegal parking lots do not mushroom in and around a fee parking zone,” he said.

In the recent past, it has come to the notice of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) that illegal parking lots are being run by touts in and around Somponno where visitors are being offered a flat rate of Rs 100 for an entire day thus making it more viable than Somponno, which charges Rs 25 for every hour. Those illegally parked vehicles have a yellow piece of small paper pasted on the front glass with Rs 100 written on them.

‘Somponno’, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in January last year has the infrastructure to accommodate 20 buses, 330 cars and 55 motorcycles.