MUMBAI: The

has decided to slap a penalty ranging from Rs 1,000 up to even Rs 10,000 on car owners for parking in no-parking zones, causing inconvenience to other motorists, pedestrians and importantly, emergency vehicles such as fire engines and ambulances. The BMC will also tow away vehicles of repeat offenders. Civic commissioner Praveen Pardeshi has asked ward officials to implement the rule from July 7.

The civic chief was initially firm on imposing a flat Rs 10,000 penalty but fearing a public outcry over the substantial penalty amount, decided to grade it from Rs 1,000 to 10,000. The fine will be imposed in the form of an

. Sources said the fine amount will be levied depending on the vehicle size and the location of the area or the road where a vehicle is illegally parked.

Ward officials have been asked to appoint contractors to implement the rule in their respective areas. They have imposed a condition that the contractors must compulsorily have a former military person in their staff to enforce the penalty rule.

Currently, the BMC does not fine motorists for illegal parking; they are disciplined by traffic police. The BMC will soon hold a meeting with joint commissioner of police (traffic) Madhukar Pande to discuss details of the move.

Pardeshi said, "We will not compromise on public spaces. We removed illegal encroachments by the poor for nullah widening work (at

). Similarly, we will remove cars of the rich that are parked illegally by encroaching on public property. We are implementing the rule wherever there is a pay-and-park alternative available within a distance of a kilometre and on arterial roads."

Pardeshi said car owners encroach on BMC roads like slum dwellers illegally occupy public spaces. He said, "Car owners encroach on roads by parking their vehicles and barring others from using that portion of public land. So, action will be taken against such encroachers."

Activists have slammed the move and said the civic body must instead create more parking space for vehicles.

Activist Ashok Pandit said, "This is dictatorship. Did the BMC speak to citizens, NGOs and experts before taking such a decision? They are here to serve the people but take decisions without taking citizens into confidence. There are other ways to find a solution instead of harassing citizens."

The BMC has 146 pay-and-park lots in different parts of the city where around 30,000 cars can be parked along with 4,000 bikes. The civic body insists that people park in parking lots and not on roads which causes serious problems for pedestrians and leads to traffic congestion. In tbe past, the city has witnessed several instances where fire vehicles have faced difficulties reaching a site due to illegally park vehicles.

The BMC will use the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act's sections 314 for encroachment and 381 for nuisance to implement the rule. It will bring in a policy listing penalty details and amounts for illegal parking. The BMC has already put up boards in no-parking zones, saying it will have zero tolerance towards

on arterial roads and impose fines.

Ward officers have also been asked to hire machines to tow away wrongly parked vehicles.

King's Circle resident Nikhi Desai (67) said, "The BMC must first provide enough alternatives for parking, construct underground and mult-storey parking at railway stations. Otherwise, the idea of imposing a penalty will not work like in the case of the plastic ban."