Eight years of Smart City Mission ends, but Nashik city's parking woes remain
Nashik: The city's parking woes persist, despite the Smart City Mission concluding in March after eight years, during which the proposed on-street and off-street parking facilities at 32 locations failed to materialise.
Resultantly, the city faces a growing parking crisis owing to a rapid increase in vehicles and lack of designated parking spaces, forcing vehicle owners to park on roadsides, causing traffic congestion during peak hours, especially in the old city area.
Bhushan Gavande, a city resident, said parking was one of the major issues in the city as there were no parking spaces to park vehicles. "It becomes difficult when we go to market areas with family members.
We have to park our vehicles somewhere and walk over 1km to the market. Hence, there is a need to start parking spaces in the city for the convenience of the residents," he said.
In 2018, a private agency appointed by the Smart City firm launched "pay-n-park" facilities at 33 locations (28 on-street and 5 off-street) in phases. A trial for additional parking spaces began in Jan 2020, but the project was halted due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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Thereafter, the private agency concerned refused to operate the parking spaces, seeking an extension in the contract period by three years, a waiver of Rs 17.5 lakh royalty annually to the Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) and a hike in parking charges.
The Smart City firm gave an extension of one-and-a-half years to the contract period because of the Covid pandemic, but refused any more extension. Besides, the Smart City corporation also refused to waive the royalty to NMC.
Finally, the agency requested the authority to exit from the project. During a board meeting, the directorial board of the Smart City firm put the ball in the court of the NMC commissioner and told him to decide on the issue. Though five civic commissioners came and left during the three years, the parking issues remained unresolved.
Around seven to eight months back, the Smart City corporation handed over the parking spaces to the civic body, but it is yet to be executed even by NMC. When contacted, Sumant More, CEO, Nashik Municipal Smart City Development Corporation Ltd, said the contractor concerned refused to operate parking spaces. "Hence, they transferred all the smart parking spaces to the civic body," More added.
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