East Delhi may not have proper parking infrastructure in place but the municipal corporation has proposed a hike in parking charges nonetheless. Going by East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) commissioner SS Yadav’s proposals, car owners may have to pay R10 for parking a car for half an hour, Rs. 20 for half an hour to one hour, Rs. 50 for up to three hours and Rs. 20 for every additional hour after that.

An extra 50% charges will be added to the bill during peak hours of 5pm-9pm. Currently, the charges are a flat Rs. 10 for 10 hours.

Yadav said not only are the current parking rates too low but by hiking them, they will be discouraging the use of private cars for short distances. “The price of every commodity has gone up. The revenue generated will be used in creating more parking facilities,” he said.

The corporation has also proposed to increase the monthly car parking pass from Rs. 500 to Rs. 1,500.

Yadav said that in the past six months, the number of surface parking sites had risen from 15 to 50 and by next year, it will rise to 100. Areas where new parking sites have been set up include Nirman Vihar, Preet Vihar, Yamuna Vihar and Laxmi Nagar, among others.

He spoke about the plan to build multi-level car parking-cum-commercial projects in public private partnership at Babarpur, the toll tax office near Apsara Border and the Anaj Mandi in Shahdara. The process of appointment of a consultant has already been initiated.