BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday approved new set of regulations for parking and septage management in the Capital City.
According to the new parking plan, the BMC will identify designated on-street parking lots as per Odisha Municipal Corporation (OMC) Act, 2003. Persons with disability or class of non-chargeable motor vehicles like ambulances will be exempted from collection of parking fees.
The Corporation may levy additional parking charges at designated sites abutting commercial land use and during peak hours of the day. It aims to force people to use public transport during peak congestion time, a BMC official said. Signage on the traffic norms and regulations will be put in place near the parking sites across the City as per the code of practice by the Indian Road Congress. On specific hours in a day, information and rates regarding parking will be displayed on the signage.
For parking enforcement, the civic body will form City Parking Management Committee (CPMC) to implement the rules under Section 685 of the OMC Act. Penalty on the violators will be collected within 28 days and after notices of violation for three consecutive occasions, the vehicle would be lifted by the civic body. Under the Septage Management Regulations, 2015, the BMC will now impose fine on households, institutions, commercial establishments and septage operators from `500 to `15,000 depending on the severity of offence.
The new regulations for septage will include the procedure to build, operate, manage, desludge, transport, treat and dispose waste originating from the septic tanks as a majority of the City area is not covered by the sewerage lines. Currently, only the New Capital (Unit areas) is covered under the sewerage lines. BMC has laid out specific norms for construction, operation and maintenance of septic tanks as per the National Building Code (NBC), Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and Code of Practices for Installation of Septic Tanks.
The new guidelines force the septage transport vehicles to follow a registration system valid for three years which is to be renewed after that period. The residents will furnish receipts of their operation and maintenance bills to the BMC officials whenever necessary.
“The civic body will form a City Septage Management Committee (CSMC) to ensure enforcement of the septage rules as earlier, the transporters were violating the norms at their whims and fancies,” the official added.