Civic polls effect? Delhi govt, civic bodies say no parking hike anytime soon

“The parking policy otherwise mandates a steep hike in parking charges... But keeping in mind the severe hardships faced by people owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Delhi government has decided against any hike as of now,” transport minister Kailash Gahlot told Hindustan Times

Hike in parking fee — a measure mandated by the Delhi government’s own parking policy of 2019 and also as an emergency step in the graded response action plan (GRAP) to curb air pollution— will not happen in Delhi anytime soon, transport minister Kailash Gahlot said on Monday, even as the city is choking on the worst spell of pollution in at least six years.

The national capital has 3.3 million four-wheelers and 7.3 million two-wheelers. (Picture for representation only)

“It is true that parking rates in Delhi will not be increased anytime soon. The parking policy otherwise mandates a steep hike in parking charges in Delhi to discourage the use of private vehicles and promote public transport. But, keeping in mind the severe financial hardships faced by people owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Delhi government has decided against any hike as of now,” Gahlot told Hindustan Times.

At least three officials from the Delhi government and municipal corporations said the reason for deferring a hike is not just the pandemic. “The municipal body elections are around the corner— it will likely be scheduled for sometime in April. Hence, parking fee will not be increased anywhere in the city because it is a politically sensitive matter,” said an official, on condition of anonymity.

A steep hike in parking fee has been mooted by transport and pollution experts as a deterrent to discourage the use of private vehicles, which will help lower vehicular emissions, one of the major local pollution sources in Delhi. As per the Supreme Court mandated GRAP to tackle air pollution, the municipal corporations should have already increased the parking fee by “three or four times” across the city as air quality has remained in the ”very poor” category (AQI 301-400) for several days now, including on Monday when it was 322. But, there has been no change in parking rates.

East Delhi Municipal Corporation mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal said the municipal body is not planning to increase the parking fee either under the GRAP measures. “We have no proposal for increasing the parking fee before us. The provision to increase the parking fee to deter usage of vehicles does not make sense. If a person own car worth ₹30-40 lakh, they will have no problem in paying ₹40-50 extra,” he argued.

The national capital has 3.3 million four-wheelers and 7.3 million two-wheelers. Nearly 500 new cars are added every day to the city registers, the government figures show.To discourage the use of private vehicles, the Delhi government, on September 25,2019, notified the Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Places Rules, 2019. As per the policy, new parking rates were to be fixed by the base parking fee (BPF) committee, headed by the transport commissioner. In October 2019, the BPF committee, which has officials from the government and the municipal corporations, came up with a formula that could make parking a car in a popular area such as Connaught Place (CP) for a 10-hour workday cost as much as ₹1,000.

The panel suggested that the base fee for four-wheelers be ₹10 per hour and ₹5 per hour for two-wheelers. While the proposed minimum rate may appear less than the existing fee of ₹20 and ₹10 per hour for the two categories, the base fee was supposed to be multiplied depending on four parameters— parking spot, duration, location, and time of day.

For instance, the committee “recommended that the multiplication factor based on location of the parking may be varied from 1 to 3, which will be decided by the civic agencies after careful consideration of the location”, read the report prepared by the BPF committee. Areas such as CP, Lajpat Nagar and Karol Bagh, which record heavy traffic, were to be in the most expensive bands.

These recommendations were to be approved by the apex monitoring committee, headed by Gahlot. However, it was kept in abeyance and HT has learnt that in a review meeting held on October 22, the minister made it clear to the committee that there shall be no hike in parking fee until further orders.

In December 2018, the government’s transport department had approved a sharp increase in one-time parking charges on new vehicles. But days later, Gahlot directed the transport commissioner to withdraw the order.

Leader of the house in south corporation, Inderjeet Sehrawat, said parking fee is not likely to be increased any time soon. “The rates were last increased by four times in November 2017 as a part of action plan to combat the deteriorating air quality. The hike remained in effect between November 9 to 16 that year,” he said.

A senior official from SDMC said the fourfold hike was found to be unproductive as people started parking outside designated parking areas, defeating the purpose behind the hike. While issuing the rate hike withdrawal order, the south MCD stated that as a result of the rate hike, “chaotic traffic conditions had occurred and traffic jams were reported from many areas, though a considerable portion of the authorised parking areas remained vacant.”

----With inputs from Paras