To protest against high parking charges in the area, the shop owners will keep the Noida’s Sector-18 market closed for three days starting Saturday.
The Sector-18 market is the biggest market in Noida where more than thousand shops including restaurants, bars and commercial buildings are present. There is an average footfall of more than 50,000 per day and the number increase during the weekends and festivals.
SK Jain, the president of the Sector-18 market association told City Spidey that the shops in the area will remain closed on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. They demanded lesser parking rates and free parking facility for the workers and shop owners.
“The Noida Authority should have asked the shop owners and market association before increasing the charges. But, they did nothing and increased the rates by 15 per cent,” Jain said.
Earlier, the parking rate was Rs 20 for four-wheelers and Rs 10 for two-wheelers for the whole day. But the authority hiked the rates of parking of four-wheelers to Rs 20 for the first two hours and Rs 10 for every additional hour whereas for two-wheeler Rs 10 for first two hours and Rs 5 for every hour.
Prakash Jagiasi, the secretary of the market association, said that these rates are very high and the workers here get only Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 as a salary. These rates are very high for them. Even, our business is also affected and there are some shop owners who shifted their shops from Sector-18 to other locations.
“The Noida Authority charges Rs 1,000 as penalty whereas the tow charge is not more than Rs 300. So, this also affects the business,” Prakash said.
“We demanded the rates of parking as Rs 20 for first six hours and Rs 40 for the whole day for four-wheelers and Rs 10 for first six hour and Rs 20 for a full day,” Jagiasi added.
The members of the association also alleged, “The DLF group is maintaining the multi-level parking. So, the Noida Authority is giving an advantage to them. People use the multi-level parking and it helps DLF business.
In multi-level parking, the rates of parking are Rs 30 for the first two hours and Rs 10 for every additional hour for four-wheelers. It is Rs 20 for the first two hours and Rs 5 for the additional hour for the two-wheelers.
On the other hand, people were unhappy and affected due to the shutdown of the market.
“I deposited my necklace to PC Jewellers for polishing and came today to take it back. But, I found the market closed. I have to attend a marriage anniversary of a close friend in Delhi today. Now, I am confused what to do,” said Sonam Singh, a resident of Noida.
RK Mishra, the additional chief executive officer of Noida Authority told City Spidey, “I was not aware that the market of Sector-18 is going to shut down for three days. But, there is no solution and they have to follow the fixed rates by the authority.”
“The association members of the market met the chief executive officer, Alok Tandon on the issue but there was no solution,” Mishra said.
