1 week Ago By Nidhi Bhardwaj
Ludhiana: The local civic body has failed to auction prime parking sites months after contracts expired, blaming elections for the delay. Residents and traders, frustrated by roadside chaos and contractor controversies, are threatening legal action. More than two years have passed since the civic body auctioned prime parking sites in the city.
Since Nov 2023, the time period awarded to the contractor ended, but to date, a fresh auction has not been organised. Sources revealed that due to elections, the e-auction of the parking lots has been suspended by the authorities for some time. The civic body conducted an e-auction for parking sites, including Bhadhaur House, Sarabha Nagar main market, multi-storey parking, Feroze Gandhi Market, Model Town extension, and BRS Nagar market in Oct 2022.
The agreement was for one year, and in Nov 2023, a fresh e-auction should have been organised instead of giving an extension to the contractor. The extension is still ongoing for reasons best known to the authorities. The MC, under pressure created by former MLA West, late Gurpreet Gogi, made Sarabha Nagar market free from any parking charges for the public in December 2024.
However, when the civic body officials uploaded the document for the auction, this site was mentioned in the list of sites. Recently, Rajya Sabha Member Sanjeev Arora, while visiting BRS Nagar market, promised the shopkeepers of F block market that there would be no parking charges for the public in the market. There are five parking lots in BRS Nagar, while four others are still being managed by the contractor.
Meanwhile, the Feroze Gandhi market association members are also up in arms against the civic body for creating a mess in their market. The members of the association claimed that around eight months ago, the chief vigilance officer of the local bodies department sought clarification about the parking agreement of this market from officials, and they are hushing up the matter. The members are now planning to approach the High Court over this issue.
However, the MC Commissioner Aaditya Dachalwal, without divulging many details, claimed that the auction date has been extended further. Parking is a major issue for the city, where people have a maximum number of vehicles, but there is hardly any place to park. The vehicles are parked at roadsides.
The parking lots, where MC officials hire one contractor for running the parking sites, remain in controversy due to overcharging and misbehaviour with the public. Questions are raised about the silence of the civic body, which, despite receiving complaints, did not cancel the agreement. MSID:: 120667659 413 |.
