Come March 31, pay green fee for entering Shimla

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, February 25

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has decided to charge the app-based green fee from all tourist and outstation vehicles entering Shimla from March 31, if all goes as planned. The proposal has been in the pipeline for the last five years.

The green fee will give the fund-starved civic body about Rs 13 crore annually, reveal officials. The money will be used for making the city “green and clean”, they added. The BJP-led SMC had been keeping the issue in the background since last year.

The 34-member House is facing fund crunch to meet its expenses. “Both Ministry of Urban Development and the state government have asked the corporation to generate its own sources of income to fulfil the mandatory norms to get funds for the Smart City projects,” sources added.

As the SMC has no alternative other than charging green fee on tourist vehicles, Mayor Kusum Sadret and Deputy Mayor Rakesh Sharma are facing the ire of the Congress and the CPM, including local BJP men in the city. From February 1, the corporation also increased the user charges on garbage collection from the residents to Rs 75 from Rs 50 per month and passed the buck on the directions of the High Court and on the resolution passed by the previous House.

The House has passed the green fee bylaws while the state government has already accorded its approval. The MC will put billboards at filling stations and barriers on the highways to educate tourists on the green fee charges, said officials.

“We have cleared all hurdles,” said Municipal Commissioner Rohit Jamval. “The penalty for defaulters has been reduced from Rs 5,000 to Rs 2,000 per vehicle. We will finally start charging green fee from tourist vehicles from March 31,” he added.

After Manali, Shimla will be the second town to charge green fee from the tourists.