Municipal Corporation of Delhi to take additional fee on parking on public land

 MCD is conducting a study to assess the feasibility of levying additional parking fee on vehicles parked on public land, especially in residential colonies. This comes after the special task force directives.

While the government and the civic agency are considering increasing parking rates and levying new fee to bring down vehicular load, little has been done to provide new parking lots. Of the 41 multi-level parking projects conceived by Municipal Corporation of Delhi in the last five years, only one stack-parking behind Shiela Cinema at Paharganj, has been made operational. Together, the parking lots would have accommodated over 17,000 cars but all MCD could do in five years was to add space for 90 cars.

Unable to complete the parking projects, MCD has blamed other civic agencies for the delay. MCD officials accused agencies like Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and Archeological Survey of India (ASI) of holding up these projects. “Shifting of DJB pipelines, getting clearances from the forest department, ASI and other agencies and delay in issuing tender bids are responsible for the delay. Some projects had to be dropped, as shifting of services was not feasible,” said an MCD official.

But with work unfinished, MCD went ahead inaugurating these parking lots. Parking lots at Parade Ground and Hauz Khas were inaugurated ahead of the municipal polls before their completion. The Hauz Khas parking project was conceived in 2008 with a deadline of 18 months. For the delay in completing the project MCD blamed the environment ministry. “The parking lot at Hauz Khas has three levels and work on two is still on. The shaft, lift-chamber and staircase are still under construction,” said the official. The multi-level automated parking at Kamla Nagar has missed two deadlines in five years and won’t be ready in the next four months. Other projects in Karol Bagh, GK-I, Defence Colony, South Extension-I and II, and Lajpat Nagar are yet to take off.

Currently, parking is a problem in front of houses, offices and markets. “The lanes of colonies are left with single lane for the movement of traffic with cars parked on both sides. Lack of space in residential areas compounds the problem. Even commercial vehicles like taxis, trucks and buses add up to the parking woes, as they are parked on the main.

Posted on Apr 27 2012. Filed under Delhi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry