GK’s busy M-Block market to get biggest car parking lot in South Delhi

A senior engineering official from the SDMC said that the agency, design and the rates that will be charged at the new parking facility have been finalised and once approved by the standing committee, the work order will be issued

The M-block market in Greater Kailash 1 is set to get the biggest automated car-parking facility run by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) as the standing committee on Friday cleared the proposal for the project, which can accommodate up to 399 vehicles, that will be undertaken at an estimated cost of ₹63.74 crore. The parking facility will be a seven storey structure with the provision to accommodate 57 cars on each floor.

Officials said that there are frequent traffic jams due to vehicles parked on the roads near the M-block market. (HT Archive)

Chairman of the standing committee Col (retd) B K Oberoi said the car-parking facility in the key South Delhi market is the biggest automated parking project being undertaken by the SDMC. “In 2017, a proposal was made to set up a car-parking facility that can accommodate upto 200 vehicles. But, we have decided to double the capacity in the current project to meet future needs,” said Oberoi.

In the last one year, SDMC has operationalised three automated parking projects in Green Park, Lajpat Nagar and Adhchini. A senior engineering official from the SDMC said that the agency, design and the rates that will be charged at the new parking facility have been finalised and once approved by the standing committee, the work order will be issued. Since the BJP has a majority in both the standing committee and the south municipality, the project is expected to sail through.

“Since the automated parking projects are based on steel structure-based modules, which can be assembled relatively faster than the RCC (reinforced concrete cement) based structures, we are expecting to complete the project in a year to maximum 18 months. In the shuttle parking system, the dolly which carries the vehicle uses RCC slabs,” said the official.

The parking facility at the M-block in Greater Kailash 1 will be the first “shuttle system”based automated car parking by the SDMC. The Green Park automated parking project is based on ‘tower parking’ model while the ones in Lajpat Nagar and Adhchini were based on “puzzle parking” concept.

A senior municipal official explained the shuttle system permits both horizontal as well as vertical movement of the platforms carrying the vehicle. “The user leaves the vehicle at a designated spot. The automated parking system will select the floor as well as the available vacant spot on that floor where the vehicle can be parked. All the information will be available in the card that will be given to the user,” explained the official.

Rajender Sharda, who heads M-block GK1 market association, said the market urgently needs a parking solution as there are frequent traffic jams. “The vehicles of shoppers often spill over on to the road. The new parking facility will help meet our needs; the SDMC should focus on timely completion of the project,” he added.

In a letter to the standing committee dated October 22, 2021, municipal commissioner Gyanesh Bharti wrote that the M-block market is prone to traffic congestion as it is one of the affluent markets in the south zone.

“The market is visited by a large number of shoppers resulting in traffic jams on day-to-day basis due to lack of sufficient parking space. The existing surface parking capacity is about 80 cars which is insufficient to cater to demand of parking,” said the letter by Bharti.