THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vehicles parked haphazardly on roadsides have become a common sight at MG Road, Statue, Palayam, Vazhuthacaud, Sasthamangalam, Vellayambalam and Kowdiar. Although regular inspections have been conducted by the RTO enforcement squads and the traffic police, parking violations continue to cause traffic congestion in the city.
The corporation along with the Police Department has started conducting inspections. On Monday, an inspection was conducted at the shopping complexes and other commercial establishments on the Kowdiar-Kuravankonam road where parking spaces were being used for other purposes. The decision was taken after a meeting held at the traffic advisory committee level where the Town Planning Committee wing of the corporation raised the issue.
“For the past few months, the engineering wing of the corporation has been keeping a check on the parking violations reported in commercial establishments where the spaces have been altered or used for other storage purposes,” said Palayam Rajan, chairperson, Town Planning Standing Committee.
“As violations started increasing in several parts of the city, we thought of conducting regular inspections in the city to curb such a practice,” he said. The violators will be given a few days to rectify the mistake. If they fail to, their trade licence will be cancelled. A bylaw was passed by the corporation council in July 2018 due to the increasing number of complaints about the unauthorised collection of parking fee in private parking lots.
As per the bylaw, parking fee as prescribed by the corporation shall be collected only for the additional parking area which has been earmarked by the building owners. The corporation will also take to task those who park vehicles on roadsides.