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Delhi civic body to build 3 parking lots for ₹312 crore to house 2,335 vehicles
Officials said the House the parking lots will come up at Shastri Nagar, Rani Bagh and Rajendra Nagar
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) on Thursday cleared three major parking lots, redevelopment of Ambedkar Stadium and development of a community complex at Aman Vihar in Rohini among a slew of projects at a House meeting, which is probably the last before the Model Code of Conduct comes into force for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, senior civic officials aware of the matter said.
The officials said the House of councillors on Thursday cleared three major parking lots which will come up at Shastri Nagar and Rani Bagh in north east Delhi and central Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar. The MCD has cleared sum of ₹312 crore for the three parking lots which will accommodate at total of 2,335 vehicles, helping decongest the residential areas.
However, no discussion was held on the proposals as the BJP members rushed to well of the House over delay in the formation of the standing committee and other House panels, but the projects were cleared by a voice vote. Mayor Shelly Oberoi said 29 proposals were placed before the House, of which 21 were passed and eight were postponed till the next House meeting which is yet to be scheduled.
“The parking lot in Shastri Nagarwill have a capacity of 935 cars. The Rajendra Nagar and Rani Bagh facilities will have a capacity of 700 vehicles each. We have brought this proposal to solve the problem of parking and traffic jams. The construction work on these parking lots will start soon,” she Oberoi said at a press conference after the House meeting. All three parkings lots will be multi-level facilities, she said.
Oberoi said the House meeting for March was called early to ensure policy matters can be taken up before the Model Code of Conduct comes into force. “As always, the BJP councillors continued to engage in hooliganism and disrupted the proceedings of the House. I want to tell the BJP councillors that they are also representatives of the public and they should allow discussions on proposals related to the people of Delhi. For the last one year, we have been requesting BJP to maintain the decorum of the House, but to no avail,” said Oberoi, whose tenure will end on March 31, but she will continue in the post till fresh mayoral elections expected in April..
A senior MCD official said currently the land on which the new lots will come up are being used to run surface parking lots. “There is high demand for parking space in the three residential neighbourhood. We have received representations from RWAs and market associations to increase parking space. The Shastri Nagar facility will be largest with nine floors. It is a part of work to decongest the 77 major corridors in the city,” the official said.
Oberoi added that the House has also passed the project for the beautification and reconstruction of the corporation’s Ambedkar Stadium located at Delhi Gate. “The stadium will be redeveloped with a new cafeteria, green rooms and other amenities at a cost of ₹4.5 crore,” she said.
She said that MCD is also going to open a new community centre in Rohini’s Aman Vihar. “The demand of the people of this area was that they had no place to hold social gathering therefore, a community center should be built in their area. We have also passed the proposals related to appointment of deputy commissioners, extension of contract of data entry operator, employees of horticulture department in advance before the implementation of the code of conduct so that there is no crisis later,” mayor added.
Leader of the House Mukesh Goyal said that BJP has not allowed the House meeting to proceed over the last whole year. “Councilors feel cheated after coming to the House meeting that they want to present the problems of their ward in the meeting and want to discuss the proposals. We are forced to pass the proposal amid ruckus and noise,” he added.
Leader of the opposition and former North Delhi civic body mayor Raja Iqbal Singh said the BJP wanted to share its views on the formation of standing committee, ward committees, and other House panels, and raise issues related to public sanitation. “The session was scheduled to start at 2pm, but the Mayor of the Aam Aadmi Party members arrived at 2.45 pm, indicating that the they did not want to run the session,” Singh said.
