Multitude of issues plague Delhi’s multilevel parking lots

With at least eight new multilevel parking lots expected to be inaugurated in Delhi over the next six months, HT did a spot check of six of the 17 existingones in south, central and north Delhi and found that they were plagued with a range of problems that significantly impeded not just their useability and utility

With at least eight new multilevel parking lots expected to be inaugurated in Delhi over the next six months, HT did a spot check of six of the 17 existingones in south, central and north Delhi and found that they were plagued with a range of problems that significantly impeded not just their useability and utility.

Old vehicles abandoned at the Asaf Ali Road underground multilevel parking lot. (Vipin Kumar/HT photo)

From the reluctance of vehicle owners to park there, water seepage in underground spaces to flawed ramps and non-functional safety systems, many of these multi-crore projects are in urgent need of attention. To be sure, Delhi has 7.7 million registered vehicles of its own and hosts thousands from neighbouring cities every day. MCD operates 417 parking lots with an overall capacity to accommodate only 50,000 cars. Due to lack of regulated spaces, people park their vehicles on roads, pavements and on streets.

Sarojini Nagar

The multilevel parking lot in the south Delhi neighbourhood was built in 2011 at a cost of ₹80 crore, and can accommodate 840 cars. During a spot visit on Monday, HT found at least 780 of those slots vacant, according to the digital counter at the facility. The multilevel parking near Sarojini Nagar was built to ease the movement of shoppers in the busy market, which is popular for cheap clothes and accessories. But the facility has largely failed on this front. The roads leading to the market are choked with illegally parked vehicles, with the multilevel parking lot grossly underutilised.

According to commuters, it takes too long to park a car at the lot.

“The lift that carries the vehicles up to the slots is very slow. Sometimes it takes over 15-20 minutes just to park a car. This is why most people end up parking on the road, “ said Ashok Randhawa, head of the Sarojini Nagar mini-market traders’ association.

A parking operator in the facility told HT it takes five or six minutes for the lift to carry a car to the slot. “This is not too much time, but people are impatient,” said the operator, who asked not to be named.

Nitin Bhatia, a trader at the Sarojini Nagar market, said if the lift is upgraded and the parking time slashed, many will be eager to park it there.

HT reached out to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), the civic body responsible for its maintenance, but did not receive a response. “The complex was built with commercial and parking components. While the commercial component is doing well due to the food outlets, the parking space remains underused,” said Randhawa.

New Friends Colony (NFC)

At the three-storey underground parking lot in NFC, 38-year-old Kailash Kumar operates a pump that dewaters the basement runs for six hours a day. However, after some time the basement is flooded again.

The water seeps into the basement owing to the high groundwater level in the area, said Kumar. “This parking lot is like a well, from where water needs to be drained out. This water is then dumped in a nearby drain,” he said.

Built at a cost of ₹42 crore and opened in 2018, the NFC underground parking lot can accommodate 604 vehicles. But on Monday, HT found that the third floor was flooded and cordoned off, leaving just two levels open for vehicles. The basement and basement 2 levels were packed, with additional cars parked on ramps and a green belt above the parking lot. For six years, though, the civic body has failed to address the seepage, effectively reducing the lot to two-thirds of its commissioned space.

An MCD official said the groundwater table has risen in the area over the last decade and that waterproofing efforts have failed. Rajpal Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) councillor from Sriniwaspuri said he has raised the flooding issue in the standing committee and house meetings on multiple occasions, to no avail.

“This is a failure of planning. They (MCD) should fix old parking lots before moving to new ones,” he said.

Worst still, much of the ancillary infrastructure at the facility — the vacancy status counters, fire-fighting system and the air-circulation system — are out of order. Even the construction of the shafts, meant for lifts and staircases, has been abandoned.

But local residents said the lot is an instance of authorities failing to meet plentiful demand.

“Since this parking lot is close to the Sarai Julena market, there’s a steep demand for parking space here. It has been reduced to this terrible state due to lack of planning. Did the authorities not know before they began work here that groundwater levels are high and proper waterproofing will be needed?” asked Rajesh Sahu, a trader.

Green Park

Built in November 2020 at a cost of ₹18.2 crore, the 17-storey parking lot is Delhi’s tallest one, but can house just 136 cars — 32 SUVs and 104 sedans. And even then, HT found abysmally low utilisation levels. Parking operators told HT on Monday that only 35 vehicles were parked inside the facility.

The lot, built adjacent to the busy Yusuf Sarai market, and most commuters prefer to park on the surface level, further choking an area that is already up to gills with vehicles. For instance, on Monday, vehicles were seen parked on the footpath opposite the parking lot.

In November 2021, a section of the multilevel parking platform that carries the vehicles had collapsed, which damaged several vehicles. The location, distance from the market and lack of any foot-over bridge to cross the roads leads to the low usage, said Sonal Shah, director, Center for Sustainable and Equitable Cities (C-SEC), which carried out a study on the parking lot last year.

A parking attendant said that both surface parking along Yusuf Sarai market and Green Park multilevel parking are operated by MCD. “We mostly get long term monthly pass users. The people visiting market still prefer to use the road side surface parking lot,” the attendant said.

Hauz Khas

Built at a cost of ₹40 crore, this decade-old parking lot in the middle of E-block market, can accommodate around 125 vehicles each on the three floors.Most of the slots were occupied on Monday. But users and operators negotiate a design flaw every day — a narrow, sharp exit ramp that damages several vehicles every day.

The lot’s parking in-charge told HT, “We advise new parking users to take a longer, wider turn while using the exit ramp, because it’s too narrow for bigger cars, which often get scratched.”

Another impediment for users is the limited access to the facility. Parking here costs ₹20 an hour and ₹100 for the whole day. And even as parking on the road costs ₹10 more per hour, people prefer parking outside, because access to the underground lot is severely restricted, with most of its entrances either locked or barricaded. The lifts don’t work either.

The fire fighting system had been stolen, and the lifts and the digital counter were non-operational. “We have sent a repair proposal to the MCD,” the parking operator said. The civic body has not responded to HT’s queries.

Asaf Ali Road

Built in 1995, this is one of the oldest underground multilevel parking lots built by the MCD in Delhi, and is located next to Lok Nayak hospital. It can accommodate 1,800 vehicles, and on Monday when HT visited it, it was largely occupied. The decades-old lot, however, is in a sorry state of disrepair. It is blighted by a multitude of dark spots, several junk vehicles, and non-functional safety systems.

Indeed, a fading public notice written in red warns that women and children should not head into the basement levels.

“It has not been repaired in years, or maybe even a decade or more,” said a parking attendant, who did not wish to be named. MCD officials did not respond to requests seeking comment.

Rajender Goel, a commuter on the Asaf Ali road said that the whole Asaf Ali market is crippled with illegal parking with one lane along the market always occupied by visitors. “Traffic police and MCD are missing and there is hardly any enforcement. These cars must be parked inside the multilevel parking lot,” Goel said.

Jangpura-Bhogal

This parking lot, being built since 2010, is still not operational. This results in vehicles lining the narrow colony roads in Jangpura A and Jangpura Extension, even as traffic from nearby Bhogal market adds to the pressure on the limited space.

This parking project, with a capacity to hold 308 vehicles, was started on January 29, 2010, with an initial deadline of 2014. Construction work, however, has been paused repeatedly due to disputes with contractors.

“At least 84 fully grown trees were chopped for this project but the site has not been made operational. We are forced to park our vehicles on the road and the open green space has also been lost,” said Laxmi Narayan, general secretary, Bhogal-Jangpura RWA.

An MCD spokesperson said that structural and safety audit of all the multilevel parking are being undertaken and estimates are being prepared for repair and maintenance of older parking lots. “Estimates for necessary maintenance work in respect of older parking lots such as Rajouri Garden MLCP and Church Mission MLCP have been prepared and under process for necessary approval for grant of budget,” the official said.