What exactly are motorists paying for?

Across Mumbai, motorists regularly complain about overcharging, fake parking attendants, and reused receipts. Representation Pic/Shadab Khan

The pay-and-park system of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has often remained in the news for the wrong reasons. And now, with the proposed hike in parking charges, it has once again become a major talking point among Mumbaikars.

In Mumbai today, finding a parking spot feels less like city management and more like a daily headache for ordinary citizens.

A motorist enters a pay-and-park zone, hands over cash to a parking attendant, gets a small paper slip and leaves hoping everything is genuine. Many times, the attendant has no proper ID card, no digital machine, and no clear proof of authority. In a city where even vegetable vendors use QR codes, Mumbai's parking system still relies heavily on cash collection.

Now, the BMC wants to increase parking charges across the city. But before asking citizens to pay more, people are asking one simple question: what exactly are they paying for?

Because the current system lacks transparency and proper management. Across Mumbai, motorists regularly complain about overcharging, fake parking attendants, and reused receipts. In some places, cash is collected without proper slips. In others, citizens are unsure whether the person taking money is genuinely authorised by the BMC or simply operating unchecked.

What is worrying is that this has slowly become normal.

At a time when technology allows every transaction to be tracked instantly, many BMC parking spots still have no proper digital payment system, no live monitoring and very little accountability. This creates a huge loophole. If collections were fully digitised, citizens could easily know the official rates, fake collections could reduce, and revenue leakages could be controlled.

But Mumbai still operates an outdated roadside cash system in the name of parking management.

Even basic information is often missing at parking locations. In many places, there is only a small "BMC Pay and Park" board. There is usually no clear mention of the contractor's name, parking timings, number of vehicles allowed or the exact parking boundaries. This confusion gives parking attendants too much unofficial power.

Take Borivli as an example. In some commercial areas, motorists claim parking attendants stop them from parking outside certain shops, claiming shopkeepers object to it. This raises a serious question: are Mumbai's public roads controlled by the BMC or by private businesses? Or is the parking contractor operating beyond authorised limits?

Citizens also feel that parking rules are enforced more aggressively in quieter residential lanes and near gardens, while heavily congested roads outside malls, restaurants, and banquet halls remain poorly managed. If the real purpose of parking policy is to reduce congestion, why does enforcement appear weakest where traffic problems are actually the worst?

This is why many citizens now feel that parking is slowly turning into a roadside tax collection system. The formula appears simple: identify places where easy money can be collected and keep expanding paid parking there.

For many middle-class families, parking fees are no longer a small expense. Between rising fuel prices, toll charges, traffic fines, and expensive vehicle maintenance, citizens already feel financially stretched.

Now, even stopping a vehicle for a short time outside markets, railway stations, or hospitals often means paying parking charges. Citizens are not opposing discipline or organised parking. What they are asking for is fairness, transparency, and proper facilities in return for the money being collected from them every single day. In a city as advanced and expensive as Mumbai, people expect better systems, not more confusion.

Vehicle numbers have increased massively over the years, but planned parking infrastructure has not kept pace. Several multi-level parking projects are delayed, impractical or underused. In many places, expensive parking buildings remain empty while vehicles continue occupying public roads outside.

No one denies that parking regulation is necessary. A city like Mumbai cannot function without discipline. But regulation without transparency starts feeling like exploitation.

Before increasing parking charges, the BMC must first fix the system itself. Every parking spot should have digital payment facilities, proper signboards, GPS-marked parking boundaries and complete contractor details displayed publicly. Citizens should know exactly where their money is going.

The BMC still has an opportunity to rebuild public trust. But increasing parking fees without fixing fake collections, confusion, and poor planning sends the wrong message.

A growing number of Mumbaikars now believe that inconvenience itself has become an urban business model. And that may be far more dangerous for the city than traffic congestion itself.

Sanjeev Shivadekar is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @SanjeevShivadek
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The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.