LG inaugurates multilevel car park near Lodhi Road

In the next three months, the civic body is also planning to add multi-level car parking facilities at five more locations in congested commercial areas in the city with a capacity of 3,400 vehicles

Delhi lieutenant governor V K Saxena inaugurated a six-storey automated car parking facility in Nizamuddin on Tuesday, but said despite many such facilities available in the city, people still park on roads, causing traffic jams and road accidents.

Delhi has approximately 13.4 million vehicles – more than Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata put together. (HT Archive)

The parking facility, with the capacity to accommodate 86 vehicles, has been built near the Lodhi Road flyover by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) at a cost of ₹15.76 crore.

LG Saxena said the facility will address the parking requirement in the crowded area. “This parking facility will not only benefit local residents, but also address the parking needs of tourists visiting religious and tourist sites in and around Nizamuddin,” he said, adding, “Despite dedicating many multi-level car parking lots, people still park their vehicles on roads, causing traffic jams and accidents.”

In the next three months, the civic body is also planning to add multi-level car parking facilities at five more locations in congested commercial areas in the city with a capacity of 3,400 vehicles.

An MCD official said the parking facility in Nizamuddin is fully automated and there will be no manual interference in the ‘puzzle car parking facility’, after the user leaves their vehicle at the pallet platform on the ground floor. “The average retrieval time of vehicles is 150 seconds,” the official added.

Puzzle parking systems are mechanical structures that can shuffle around multiple platforms. These systems resemble sliding puzzles due to the way the puzzle parking mechanism can move platforms, where cars are parked, up, down and side-to-side.

Instead of underground parking lots, the municipal body is now increasingly opting for automated tower or puzzle parking facilities to increase parking space in commercial areas. An official from the engineering wing said such automated parking lots can accommodate more vehicles in congested spaces. “Unlike underground parking lots, the potential of the number of levels in automated tower parking is much higher. A typical tower parking facility requires just 1.50sqm to park a car in comparison to 30sqm required in conventional parking,” the official added.

MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharti said the area around Nizamuddin is congested and has major parking issues. “We hope residents as well as people visiting Sunder Nursery and Nizamuddin Dargah will use this facility,” he added. He said the civic body is planning to add multi-level car parking facilities at 12 more locations with a capacity of 8,000 vehicles. However, he did not give a time frame on when these facilities will come up.

Parking space for 3,400 more cars in 3 months

According to the status report of the remunerative projects cell of MCD, the corporation plans to set up five multi-level parking facilities over the next three months. These projects include Chandni Chowk (Gandhi Maidan) multi-level parking project, which will add parking space for 2338 vehicles (equivalent car space); Nigam Bodh Ghat facility with 95 cars; Amar Colony (Lajpat Nagar) with 81 cars; Fatehpuri market with 196 cars; Qutub road parking faciliy with 174 cars and Pitampura (Shiva market) parking facility with 500 cars.

An MCD official said the facilities in Fatehpuri and Nigambodh will be completed by March-end while the Chandni Chowk, Pitampura and Qutub Road projects are likely to be completed by April 30. The Amar Colony-Lajpat Nagar facility – another puzzle parking facility – with 81 cars will be operational by June 30.

MCD operates 403 parking lots across the city comprising 390 surface parking sites and 13 multi-level parking sites. These parking lots have a capacity to accommodate 50,771 four-wheelers, 32,603 two-wheelers and 1,705 six-wheelers such as trucks and buses. Delhi has approximately 13.4 million vehicles – more than Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata put together.