Parking Violation Fine Goes Up Steeply in Mumbai

Road parking regulars, beware, the Mumbai municipal corporation might just get hold of you! Mumbai traffic police and the municipal corporation of the city have just disclosed that the illegal parking fine for city has been hiked. The new rates are Rs. 23,000 for heavy vehicles, Rs. 15,100 for light motor vehicles, Rs. 12,200 for three wheelers, and Rs. 8,300 for two wheelers.

There are reports on the internet stating that the parking fine for offenders parking their vehicles within a distance of half a kilometre of the 26 authorized public parking lots and 20 designated BESTS depots in the city. This total fine also includes the towing charges for the vehicles found in violation of the latest directive of the city. The municipal corporation of the city has already put up notices regarding the new directives all across the city. With this latest hike, the drivers of the city will want to park their vehicles at the right spots.  The whole idea behind the steep parking fines is to ensure that people don’t break the law, and park illegally in unauthorized spots.

Talking about the latest directive of the city, a municipal official stated,

“This will curb instances of people simply parking anywhere, disappearing for brief to prolonged periods to complete some work before returning, but by that time, traffic is already in chaos, especially on main road.”

The municipal administration in the city is expecting a lot of resistance from the initial violators and therefore, to keep the situation under control, it has also roped in ex-servicemen and professional security guards for proper implementation of these fines. With the initial spots designated for the new rules, one can expect the same rules to be applied to other parts of the city as well, in a phased manner. Parking illegally is a major problem in Mumbai, as being one of the commercial hubs of India, the city has a large population and the space is only limited. Therefore, illegal parking, especially on the roads becomes a major problem for the city.

However, it remains to be seen whether the high parking fines solves the problem in the city or not. Usually, implementation is the key in these circumstances as the administration has to make sure that violators do not get off by paying comparatively lower bribes to the enforcing officials instead of the actual fine. Another aspect will be the citizen reaction to the fine as one could see protests similar to the one recently seen against helmet rule in Pune.