Shimla: Parking service near HC resumes partially

Shimla, January 16

The four-day logjam between the Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) and a private firm that operates the parking facility near the High Court area (the Lift) ended on Monday morning with the latter agreeing to resume operations now.

In a strongly-worded notice served on the private firm citing inconvenience to the public and tourists, the SMC had directed Shimla Tolls Project Private Ltd to re-open the parking facility on or before January 16 failing which the corporation would re-open the facility on its own.

In the morning when MC officials reached the parking lot to take stock of the situation, the private firm agreed to resume parking services only during day-time.

In a reply filed to Municipal Commissioner Parmod Kumar Sood, Director of the firm, said, “After a telephonic discussion with a senior MC official, we have resumed parking services for day-time only. We have been operating the parking facility till we were forced to stop operations on account of disconnection of essential services by MC. It was not practically possible to run the parking facility without electricity and water but on your persistence, we have re-started the parking services from 7 am to 6 pm. But if any mishap occurs due to absence of electricity and water then Shimla MC would be responsible for the same. And, this arrangement has been made on a temporary basis.”

Sood alleged that there were possibility of political influence behind the “toughened stance”. He added, “If there were anomalies then those should have been brought to our notice in 2019 when completion certificate was issued by an MC-appointed independent engineer.”

Satish Sharma, manager of the parking lot, said, “With no electricity, CCTVs are not working thereby raising serious concerns about the security of people parking their vehicles in the parking lot. Our electronic machines for issuing receipts are not working (chargeable) so we have to write down details on every receipt manually making our job laborious; moreover, it’s difficult to maintain records manually.”