By Express News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A bylaw empowering the city corporation to penalise people who run unauthorised parking lots in the city awaits approval. If it comes to effect, the corporation can move legally against the offender and can charge them a hefty fine not less than Rs 10,000. The corporation came up with the bylaw after it was brought to their notice that many shopping centres and institutions in the city have more private parking spaces in addition to the mandated parking spaces. The mandated parking space decided in proportion to the carpet space of the building is necessary to get a permit for any building. However, some establishments have a larger number of customers. This prompts them to open other parking spaces in nearby plots and some of them go as far as to charge users for parking without providing them any amenities. So far, only 16 such parking spaces in the city are registered with the corporation. "We had issued an advertisement and conducted inspections through our revenue inspectors. It was after this 16 establishments registered their additional parking lots. Given that they have to pay the fine for the period of time they ran the place without authorisation, most of them hesitate. However, we do take immediate action if it is brought to our attention that customers are being charged in such additional parking lots. By bringing this new bylaw, we are hoping to regularise the charges and give licences to private parking lots," said a corporation official. According to the proposed bylaw, such private parking spaces will have to follow a lot of regulations including a specific number of staff with ID cards, cabins for the staff, toilets for users in three categories- male, female and gender-neutral, maintain proper vehicle registers and roofs to protect vehicles from the sun and rain. If the parking lots follow all these mandatory steps, they can charge an amount fixed by the corporation here. However, officials are sceptical as not many bylaws have received government approval in the last three-four years.

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