Kochi parks a hefty fine

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If it is about vehicles, Kochi wants to be on top in the state always. Be it in the total number of vehicles or the total number of licence holders.

The latest statistic to join the list is the amount in fines paid by people for parking violations.

The special drive of pasting stickers on illegally parked vehicles in the city crossed the magic number of Rs 10 lakh last Monday, a feat that was achieved in just five months since the drive started.

The trend shows that Kochi pays a fine of Rs 2 lakh in parking violations every month and Rs 6,666 every day.

According to statistics from the traffic department, there are nearly 15 lakh vehicles in the city, while there are only 1,500 police personnel and 250 traffic personnel.

This includes the number of clerks. This means each traffic personnel handles 6,000 vehicles every day.

“The ratio between traffic officials and vehicles is huge,” said Muhammed Rafique, assistant commissioner of traffic police (west).

“Considering the fact that each person has to look after 6,000 vehicles, the cops may not be able to reach every vehicle and every point in the city.

We have limited resources, but Kochiites still managed to pay fines to the tune of Rs 10 lakh in five months for traffic violations,” he added, mockingly.

The police said MG Road, Palarivattom, South and Menaka were places where the most traffic violations occurred.

Though Kochiites continue to pay hefty amounts as fines for traffic violations, trends indicate that the figure is going down.

“We began the drive last November. Compared to the statistics then, the total fines collected for violations have gone down. The police haven’t weakened their enforcement, but people show more responsibility in obeying traffic rules,” Rafique said.

Better to break rule and pay, feel vehicle owners

Buying vehicles is not a headache for Kochiites. However, parking these vehicles is the biggest headache people face.

And as traffic cops continue to run around the city sticking slips for traffic violations on various vehicles, people are left with no option but to park in no-parking zones and pay the fines.

Confronted with narrow roads, traffic bottlenecks and frequent congestion, what exists in the city is not a traffic system but utter chaos.

Though the city corporation’s town planning committee started the preliminary work of preparing a bylaw for parking in the city, it is yet to entrust the drafting of this to the CPPR (Centre for Public Policy Research).

The corporation had also made several proposals including the conversion of empty plots owned by private people into parking lots.

But, the proposal is still on paper as no serious initiative was taken to implement the same so far.
The absence of enough parking lots is also forcing vehicle owners to park their vehicles on footpaths blocking the way for pedestrians.

“Most commercial complexes have no parking facilities. This forces drivers to park along the busy road,’’ said Muhammed Rafique, assistant commissioner of traffic police (west).

“Vehicle density goes up due to poor public transport,” said T.J. Thomas, regional transport officer, Ernakulam.

He said that only a mass transporting and modern parking system would solve the issue.
Akhil Anto, who works for a private firm, opined that the sticker-business by traffic cops should be stopped.

“First they should implement a full-fledged system to curb the parking woes. They cannot just charge people without doing their duty first,” he said.

New projects mooted

The Kochi Corporation has mooted a few new proposals in the 2012-13 budget to address the issue of lack of parking space in the city.

A major suggestion in the budget was to find new vacant lands in the city, with the view of converting them into parking spaces.

The officials have also decided to penalise the buildings in the city that do not provide parking spaces. An investigation held by the corporation officials found that many buildings had converted their parking area into office spaces. Another proposal for building multi-level parking plazas in the city, is gathering dust.

Fine collected for parking violations

Busiest locations where parking is nearly impossible
* MG Road
* Park Avenue Road
* Shanmugam Road
* SA Road
* Palarivattom

Type of offence Number of offences

Mar ‘11 Feb ‘12 Mar ‘12
Parking at
No-parking zones 48 3473 3276
Obstructive parking 22 929 530
Parking without
park light(during night) 10 11 42