Earlier, the metropolis had said it would initiate municipal parking, a system that would allow vehicle owners to park for free for a limited time in major city centres like Durbarmarg and New Road. However, the officials concerned failed to implement the system.

KMC officials said that it is impossible to initiate the municipal parking system as it requires proper technology and adequate manpower. “We lack the resources to introduce this system,” said Dhanapati Sapkota, Implementation Department chief at the KMC. “We would require machines that have time card as people are hesitant of hand-written parking tickets,” he said. Sapkota said they were also ready to hand over the responsibility to the private sector with a mandatory clause to introduce an efficient management of municipal parking with technology and workforce. However, as the case of handing it to the private sector is pending in the court, no tender has been announced by the KMC. The earlier biddings suggested that the private sector had to bid a minimum amount of Rs 16.5 million though the metropolis was collecting just Rs 4.5 million in revenue from around 20 major parking lots.

The KMC had introduced free public parking to discourage cartels operating parking lots and haphazard fees. The parking spaces were being operated as per royalty system fixed 15 years ago.