GUJRAT: The Gujrat Municipal Corporation (MC) has imposed a parking fee on vehicles in at least a dozen main commercial areas.

Scores of motorcycle-rickshaw drivers staged a protest against the decision on Monday.

As per the notification, the parking fee of a motorcycle or rickshaw has been set at Rs10 at each point and Rs30 for parking a car or any private vehicle at the notified points.

The protesting drivers marched on roads while carrying placards inscribed with slogans against what they called another source of extortion by contractors in the name of parking fee, which they said was unacceptable to them.

The protesters staged a demonstration at Chowk Pakistan and blocked the road by parking their motorcycle rickshaws. They denounced the MC`s decision and demanded it be withdrawn.

This is the first time a civic body has imposed such a parking fee making it difficult for a number of people running illegal parking stands.

The MC recently auctioned the contract of collecting parking fee to a private firm with an expected annual income of Rs6 million. The contractor started collecting the fee from July 1 confusing people as they were not used to paying this fee in most areas.

Afzal Butt, chief officer of the MC, told Dawn that at least a dozen points had been earmarked for the collection of parking fee, including those where some private people had been collecting parking fee illegally.

He hoped that the protests would die down in the next few days as the civic body would spend the parking fee collected on improving facilities in the city.