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A lane divider along the NL Road in Dimapur being painted recently. The project is purely funded by parking fees collected from motorists.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, April 25: The Dimapur Municipal Council’s (DMC) move to impose parking tax, as decided by the Regional Transport Authority (RTA), of INR 10 per hour from March 11 along the Nyamo Lotha (NL) road in Dimapur was received with objection from some individuals.
However, the DMC along with the district administration, deputy commissioner of police (traffic) and transport authority, had stood by the decision to move ahead with charging INR 10 per hour along the NL Road.
The DMC’s administrator Moa Sangtam maintains that the fee collected from parking will be used to maintain NL Road. Any citizen may check from the DMC’s office on the amount of funds that had been collected per month and how it is being utilised.
"Many people are still not willing to pay the parking fee and even after parking for more than an hour people do not pay fee for parking their vehicle. But we do not collect the fee forcibly when people are not willing to pay," Sangtam told Eastern Mirror.
"The fees collected would be transparent to the public and anyone can come to the office of the DMC to check how the amount was utilised," Sangtam assured.
The DMC collected around INR 53,250 starting from March 11 till the 31st. From the parking fees, the DMC in collaboration with a group called ‘Cleaning Brothers’ repainted a road divider from the Deluxe point to the Holy Cross junction.
Sangtam hopes that for the month of April, the parking fee collection will be more compared to March. The municipal council has planned for more restoration activities—if only the citizens will cooperate with the administration. But, he said, whether the funds generated from the parking fees are less or more, the DMC will still continue to use itto develop the urban centre.
Commenting on vehicles running into the lane divider at night and people blaming ‘low visibility of the lane dividers,’ Sangtam said that the municipal was working on using reflectors on the dividers.
But he reminded: "It is not to do with the colour of the lane divider but rash driving." Nonetheless, the municipal council will use paint reflectors, he said.