RB Ave puja parking mess forces MMiC to get off car and take a bike ride home
Times of India | 10 September 2025
Kolkata: The Kolkata Traffic Police on Tuesday launched a special drive to crack down on illegal parking around Rash Behari Avenue following complaints by local MLA Debasish Kumar, who happens to be a member of the mayor-in-council overseeing the KMC car parking department.
On Monday, while participating in a puja coordination meeting, Kumar alleged that unauthorized parking in the Rashbehari-Gariahat belt was creating a massive problem for motorists and leading to traffic jams. The situation forced him to abandon his car midway and reach home on a bike of a party worker recently. According to a KMC car parking department official, the civic body lodged a complaint with the Kolkata Traffic Police wing, requesting action against unauthorized parking.
According to sources, a special team from the Southeast Traffic Guard, aided by the special raid section from Lalbazar, carried out surprise raids around Vivekananda Park-Deshapriya Park, with at least 17 cases reported from the Vivekananda Park area. A KMC official on Tuesday said the joint raid by KP-KMC teams successfully cracked down on double-lane parking along the entire Rashbehari Avenue — from the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road crossing to the Gariahat Road intersection.
"While conducting the drive, we found double-lane parking violations in the Gariahat area. KMC authorized parking attendants have been warned against taking extra money and accommodating additional cars on a second lane," said the civic official. The parking attendants were also asked to wear proper ID cards and show the same on demand from motorists.
"Besides Hindustan Park, we are now forming separate teams to ensure that the blue line is not violated on RB Avenue.
We will deploy more men on weekends leading up to Durga Puja as more people will throng these areas for marketing," said an officer.
Traffic cops said they will also involve the local police if they receive any complaint of parking extortion from near Basanti Devi College on Rashbehari Avenue. "So far, we have found no fresh complaints in this regard except the one lodged earlier last month."
Lalbazar has also identified parking hot spots from where violations were reported in the past few year and asked the local guard to keep an eye on them.
The South and East Traffic Guards have now proposed that each attendant carry a rate charge with them to avoid confusion. They have instructed the latter to put up parking charts all along the parking spots instead of specific points. The cops have instructed parking attendants to report all POS device-related issues to both KMC and local police instantly.