Misuse of cellars: Mancherial civic body to crack the whip

Cellars of commercial establishments are meant for parking of vehicles belonging to their customers as per the Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019.

Mancherial: Officials of Mancherial municipality have finally started looking into the misuse of cellars of commercial establishments for purposes other than parking of vehicles.

Cellars of commercial establishments are meant for parking of vehicles belonging to their customers as per the Telangana Municipalities Act, 2019. However, they were being rented out to store-rooms and outlets of drugs, diagnosis centres and other shops.

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Consequently, customers are forced to park their vehicles elsewhere in the busy market, causing traffic snarls and inconvenience to pedestrians.

In order to tackle the issue, MLA K Premsagar Rao while participating in a general body meeting of the civic body recently, had instructed officials to take action against owners who do not use cellars for parking of vehicles. Accordingly, the officials began acting tough against the errant owners of commercial structures.

Municipal Commissioner A Maruthi Prasad said notices would be issued to 18 commercial establishments asking why action should not be initiated against them for violating norms. They would be given one week to provide an explanation. Based on response of the owners, action would be taken, he said.

Officials said steps were being taken to address parking woes of customers in a phased manner. Awareness was being created among owners of commercial establishments on the rules, they said, adding that traffic snarls would be reduced on busy roads in the market if the cellars were used exclusively for parking.

What does the Telangana Municipalities Act 2019 say:

According to the Act, it is mandatory to provide for requisite parking place while constructing, depending upon the use of building. Parking in buildings, places of public convenience, commercial complexes, cinema halls and other such places shall be provided free of charge to the users.

“All parking places except individual independent or residential buildings shall be provided with Electric Vehicle Charging infrastructure. Municipal commissioner shall levy a penalty up to 25 percent of the value of the land on owner or developer of a building if area earmarked for parking is being put to other use,” the Act says.