Thiruvananthapuram Corporation responds to allegation that PWD road was rented to a private party; says it is baseless, contract will be canceled if rules are not followed

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Thiruvananthapuram Corporation has come out with an explanation for the allegation that a busy area at MG road was rented to a private hotel for parking. The Corporation said that the allegation that the PWD road in front of the Devaswom Board Building near Ayurveda College was given for rent, is baseless.

The Corporation with the help of the Police had appointed 225 wardens to collect parking fees in the city limits. The fees collected are deposited in their society. The Corporation does not take the money collected as fees.

According to the contract made by the Corporation and the owner of the hotel, the traffic wardens will not collect fees from the vehicles parked in the area. It was decided that the hotel owner will pay the money.

The decision to hand over the parking space for rent to the hotel owner as per the contract was taken on 13 June, at a meeting of the Traffic Advisory Committee presided over by the Mayor. The application of the owner was reviewed in the meeting before taking the decision.

After the decision was made, the Corporation secretary signed the contract with the hotel owner on an Rs.100 agreement paper.

The Corporation has made it clear that if there is any violation of the agreement, then the contract will be canceled. Earlier, the PWD Minister had asked for an explanation from the Executive Engineer of the road section.

Interestingly, the Mayor decided to rent out the PWD roads when the road safety law specifically says that not even the government has the right to give PWD roads for parking.

Once the contract was signed, the hotel employees began to prevent other vehicles from parking at the spot. This has led to many verbal duels between the hotel staff and the commuters.