Residents will heave a sigh of relief as the General House of the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has deferred the agenda for increasing the parking fee and the number of paid parking lots in the city. The Mayor has formed a committee, headed by Arun Sood, a former Mayor, to recommend rates and the terms and conditions for allotment of lots.
The MC had proposed to convert around 30 free parking areas into paid lots, besides enhancing the parking fee. The new paid parking lots had been identified in Sector 7, 19, 22, 23, 24, 36 and on Madhya Marg. When the issue came up for discussion at the meeting, councilors decided to wait for the report of the committee.
The MC had proposed to charge Rs 10 for two-wheelers and Rs 20 for four-wheelers, which were to be doubled after four hours.

The Municipal Corporation has decided to continue to run all parking lots on its own at old rates till these are allotted to new firms. 
Sources said the allotment was likely to take three to four months.  
The Municipal Corporation has been running 25 paid parking lots at old rates after it terminated the agreement with M/s Arya Toll Infra Ltd, which was allotted these parking lots and multi-level parking after the company failed to pay the licence fee amounting to Rs 3.69 crore.
Davesh Moudgil opposed the proposal for an increase in the parking fee stating that it would put an additional burden on people. Kirron Kher, MP, had also asked the Mayor to defer the agenda for an increase in the parking fee.