The Hindu          30.10.2014  

Corporation mulls ‘pay-and-park’ system in Thillai Nagar

The Tiruchirapalli City Corporation has proposed to levy a fee for parking vehicles on some arterial roads in the city.

The proposal, once approved by the Corporation Council, may be implemented on a pilot basis predominantly in and around Thillai Nagar, the city’s prime residential locality where a large number of commercial establishments have come up in recent years.

According to the proposal, the fee is to be levied for vehicles parked on the Thillai Nagar Main Road, Shastri Road, and Fort Station Road, all in Thillai Nagar, and E.V.R.Road-Vayalur Road near Puthur.

The corporation plans to levy a fee of Rs. 3 for two-wheelers; Rs. 5 for four-wheelers such as cars and vans and Rs. 10 for buses. All rates will be applicable for a six-hour period.

The corporation estimates that it could rake in about Rs. 22 lakh a year through the levy of the parking fee on these roads.

The civic body’s initiative seems to be mainly aimed at cashing in the large number of shoppers who clock the areas. In the absence of provision for parking in most of the commercial buildings, visitors park their vehicles on the road sides.

It has been widely alleged that many of these buildings have been built with plan approvals showing parking space in basements but these have been converted into commercial area in violation of the rules.

According to an official resolution which will be tabled before the Corporation Council, there were 280 commercial establishments on the Thillai Nagar Main Road; 172 on Shastri Road; 50 on Fort Station Road, and 20 along the EVR Road.

In recent years, the police had enforced a no-parking rule along the arterial roads such as the Thillai Nagar Main Road.

But this is giving headache to people living on the cross roads in the area as vehicles are parked haphazardly on these roads.

With violators often being penalised, people visiting the shops and innumerable commercial establishments along the Thillai Nagar Main Road started flocking the cross roads to park their vehicles. The situation has turned so bad that vehicles could hardly negotiate the cross roads, especially at the 11th Cross. Accidents have become frequent at the cross road intersections.

There have been demands that parking should not be allowed for at least 100 metres on the cross roads from the Thillai Nagar Main Road.

It remains to be seen whether the corporation move will help regulate the problem or aggravate it.

The Hindu          24.10.2014 

Property tax: old city areas may pay more

With the Chennai Corporation considering a proposal to revise property tax rates on the basis of current guideline values, residents wonder what the impact on their expenses will be.

Some neighbourhoods in the recently-added areas of the Chennai Corporation pay the same property tax as those in well-developed areas such as T. Nagar that fetch high rental values, experts said, pointing to anomalies.

Residents of such neighbourhoods with low guideline value pay the same amount of property tax as neighbourhoods with high guideline values every half year.

A chunk of the 11 lakh residential and commercial properties which have relatively lower property tax rates are within the old city limits. The civic body will map all such roads to asses the loss of revenue because of the existing system. Based on a study, the civic body will rationalise and revise property tax rates.

Property tax is around 30 per cent of the total revenue of the civic body. The increase in property tax collection is likely to result in a rise in per capita capital expenditure. Chennai spends less than Rs. 2,000 per resident, much lower compared to developed cities.

A chunk of the 11 lakh residential and commercial properties which have relatively lower tax rates are within the old city limits