J&K HC agrees with parking plans and tariffs proposed by govt
Srinagar, Mar 10: The J&K High Court on Tuesday assented the parking categories and tariffs proposed by the divisional administration of Kashmir to tackle the traffic mess in the city.
A division bench including Justices Ali Mohammad Magrey and D S Thakur hearing a public interest petition examined the status report by the administration on traffic mess in the city. The bench agreed with the parking plans and tariffs proposed by a committee headed by the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir.
The committee also included Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Vice-Chairman Srinagar Development Authority, Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Chief Engineer Public Works Department, Kashmir, and other senior civil and police officers.
The officers in their report to the court sorted out the parking plans in four categories — existing parking, development of new parking slots, road-side parking and private open land parking. The parkings have been classified in to A, B, C and D categories.
For Category A, Rs 20 has been fixed as parking charges per hour, Rs 30 for day on monthly parking for Category B, and Rs 100 has been fixed for Category C parking on daily basis.
The court directed the authorities for procuring electronic machines in these parking spaces in order to record the date and time of parking of vehicles.
It also directed the Divisional Commissioner Jammu to implement the directions in Jammu parking slots on the same analogy and regulate the paid parking slots in the similar manner.
The court, however, made it clear that no roadside parking shall be available for a day or month.
It directed the authorities to expedite the execution of work on the parking slots in the union territory.
The court arrayed Ministry of Transport, Government of India, through its Secretary as a party in the case and issued notice to him in the matter.
The counsel representing the Union government has been asked to file response indicating therein as to whether there is any existing policy regarding the parking registration.
The J&K administration has also been directed to formulate a policy to regulate the registration of the vehicles. It has been asked to impose conditions in the registration norms to the extent of asking the owner of a vehicle intending to have his/her vehicle registered with the authorities for availability of parking at residence.
Rashid Paul is Associate Editor at Kashmir Images.
He can be reached at [email protected]
