Digitisation and more multilevel parking lots planned in Delhi

Proposals include converting regular car parks into smart parking spaces linked with mobile applications, increasing the one-time parking fee at the time of registration, and removing roadside parking lots that are leading to traffic bottlenecks

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is planning a series of reforms, from digitisation to pricing for parking, to tackle congestion on roads and resolve complaints of overcharging, senior municipal officials said on Monday.

Car parking on roadsides hinder traffic in Lajpat Nagar. (HT Archive)

Sharing that the discussions were only at a preliminary stage, officials said proposals include converting regular car parks into smart parking spaces linked with mobile applications, increasing the one-time parking fee at the time of registration, and removing roadside parking lots that are leading to traffic bottlenecks.

“We are in conversation with the National Informatics Center (NIC) to develop an app for the corporation. Under the current system, the contractor operating the parking lot has to pay monthly licence fee to the MCD. This will also help direct payments to the corporation’s account and MLF can be deducted automatically. The financial control will wrest with the corporation,” a senior MCD official said.

The official said the civic body is considering digitisation of the parking charge system, under which people will be able to book a parking slot using their mobile application. “The entry and exit time with the location would be entered it he application at the time of the entry to the parking lot. This will help bring transparency to the system. There are also models available whereby slot booking can be made through mobile applications,” the official said.

The MCD runs 430 parking lots, of which 14 are multilevel facilities and the rest are surface-level ones. The MCD has equipped more than 20 parking lots with RFID technology to collect charges through FASTag.

Last month, the corporation had also imposed penalties of up to ₹24 lakh for parking fee overcharging in various parking lots of Old Delhi.

A second municipal official said that the parking sector reforms may also include closing some roadside parking lots, which are adding to traffic congestion, in a phased manner.

“These points will be selected based on the inputs from the Delhi Traffic Police. If the surface parking is creating more problems rather than adding facility for the people, it can be closed. In such cases, the space should be converted into no parking area as making it free would only add to chaos with people parking haphazardly,” the official said.

The official said that such phasing out can be carried out only in selected areas as it will lead to revenue loss. “We are also planning to seek an increase in one time parking charges which are levied while registering a new vehicle to counter the revenue loss,” the official said.