In poll season, suggestions to improve traffic may fall on deaf ears

PUNE: The traffic police branch has made suggestions to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to introduce telescopic parking rates (high rates for parking after two hours), congestion tax and low occupancy tax (more tax if one person is travelling in a car) in the city to cut back the congestion on roads. However, unless there is a strong political will and an administrative push, such sweeping changes may not happen.
Deputy commissioner of police, (traffic) Manoj Patil said that the traffic police department has been working on policy guidelines to discourage on-street parking and encourage off-street parking so as to reduce congestion on the main roads.
"We have given a list of suggestions to the civic body because we are not the authority to implement such rules. The number of vehicles is growing rapidly in the city and on-street parking is eating into the carriage width of the roads. Some stringent measures are needed to solve the problem. So we have made some suggestions to the civic body which will discourage vehicles on road for a longer period of time," Patil said.
Some suggestions are charging high rates for parking after two hours. It can be to the extent of Rs 50 per hour so as to discourage blocking of parking space, banning of parking in congested areas, introducing low occupancy tax so that people do not bring out their cars when just one person is using it and introducing congestion tax and banning parking on main roads and introducing off-street parking.
With civic polls less than a year away, it seems unlikely that the suggestions will translate into a formal proposal and that the general body will approve it. A senior corporator refused to comment as it could affect his party's prospects during elections.
Leader of the Congress in the PMC Aba Bagul said that improving public transport is a better solution than burdening the people with taxes. "Other measures such as charging high rates from people who have more than one car and have brought them on the roads thus blocking valuable space are necessary. Different coloured number plates according to the number of car one owns can be the identification. Another idea that can be implemented is introducing a no-vehicle zone phasewise which will also reduce pollution and congestion in every area," Bagul said.
Leader of Nationalist Congress Party in PMC Subhash Jagtap said that he would give the proposal a thought. He said he was all for imposing high rates to reduce traffic congestion on roads. "A few years ago, I had supported a proposal to charge high parking rates from four-wheeler owners was floated. However, it did not get any approval as there was no support from a majority of the house. Such measures will have to be taken to avert problems in future," Jagtap said.
Corporator Ujwal Keskar rejected Patil's proposal. "Improvement of public transport can only solve all the problems and it is not the traffic police's jurisdictions to make such suggestions. It does not come under their purview. They made Fergusson College and J M roads as one-way but that has not solved the problem," Keskar said.
Shiv Sena leader Sham Deshpande said that such suggestions will not solve the parking problems of the city, but procuring more land for parking will be the right solution. "The Development Plan (DP) of PMC has reserved 35 parking spaces in the city but only five or six have been executed so far so. Instead of charging high rates from people who are already burdened, the police should help the PMC take action against encroachments in commercial complexes which are meant for parking," Deshpande said.
Meanwhile, the civic officials said that the parking rates of Rs 5 per hour for cars that was suspended from most roads in February 2011 due to breach of contract by the contractor will resume in two months.
Times View
A solution to the parking problem will be found only when the city begins to work its plans. Pune’s civic administration and people’s representatives have failed to recognise this. Vehicle numbers have crossed the 20-lakh mark and will keep rising as long as the mass transport projects initiated by the PMC, including mono rail, skybus, tram and ring railway, remain non-starters. As early as 1991, the K G Paranjape Committee, in its Pune Action Plan, had suggested strengthening the public transport system. At that time, there were only 3 lakh vehicles in the city. The civic body and traffic planners urgently need to widen the PMPML bus network, push the metro rail project and expand the BRTS, which at present caters to only two pilot routes. Piecemeal solutions like developing mechanised parking lots or imposing hefty parking fees will not work in the long run.