The standing committee of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has ordered a thorough enquiry into the commercialization of pay and park facilities set-up by the civic body at various places across the city and submit the report within seven days.

Standing committee chairman Rajesh Desai said, "We have received many complaints for pay-and-park facilities across the city. It is illegal for contractors to sell the space on monthly rental or provide the space for goods storage. If any of the contractors is found guilty, his contract will be terminated."

The contractors are accused of giving parking spaces on rent, while the people are forced to park their vehicles on road. The situation is grim at the crowded textile market located on Ring Road where the pay-and-park spaces beneath the flyover bridges and multilevel parking complexes are illegally given to textile traders and grey transporters on fixed monthly basis. At the multilevel parking, there are signboards of particular textile firms where the goods are dumped.

SMC earns Rs 11crore per annum from parking facilities. But, due to the unethical practices adopted by private contractors, public at large are denied a proper parking space.

There are around nine multilevel parking complexes located in seven municipal zones of the city. Apart from this, there are 27 pay-and-park facilities. In all, around 12,000 cars and two-wheelers could be parked in the parking facilities set up by the SMC.