BMC’s D ward kicks off on-street pay-and-park on two roads

Each parking slot has to be clearly painted in yellow and boards indicating the name of the building, the number of the car parking spaces allotted and date of completion of the pay-and-park scheme have to be installed at appropriate locations.

The BMC’s on-street pay-and-park scheme, an experiment in private parking slots on public roads, has been launched on two roads in South Mumbai. The roads have been ‘adopted’ by two housing societies -- Bakhtavar CHS on Narayan Dabholkar Lane for 10 parking slots and Sagar Kunj on Rungta Lane at Napean Sea Road for six slots -- for a period of six months. The societies are paying ₹6,600 per vehicle per month.

The BMC will generate ₹40,000 per month from the Rungta Lane parking slots and ₹70,000 from Narayan Dabholkar Marg (HT Photo)

A civic official from D ward’s maintenance department told Hindustan Times that since the roads in question were wide, the space for other cars wasn’t being compromised. “We take an NOC from the traffic police for the parking,” he said.

The societies submitted their applications three months ago to the BMC. A survey was conducted with the local traffic police, an NOC obtained from the latter and a proposal put out from the ward to the deputy municipal commissioner regarding the number of cars that would be parked and the revenue that would be generated. The DMC then issued an allotment letter and instructions on how the cars had to be parked based on traffic police recommendations.

The BMC will generate ₹40,000 per month from the Rungta Lane parking slots and ₹70,000 from Narayan Dabholkar Marg. “More people are now aware of the scheme and sending in their proposals,” said a civic official.

Each society is required to appoint two uniformed security guards with identity cards at the pay-and-park site. Trained parking attendants to regulate parking arrangements and help motorists manoeuvre their cars into the slots are also mandatory. The societies are managing this smoothly, said Ramesh Kotawala, resident of Bakhtawar CHS. “We have employed two security guards to man the parking lots around the clock. We’ve even bought a cabin for the guard to sit in during the monsoon.”

The allotment letter issued to the societies states their duties clearly. “Each parking slot has to be clearly painted in yellow and boards indicating the name of the building, the number of the car parking spaces allotted and date of completion of the pay-and-park scheme have to be installed at appropriate locations. It shall be ensured that the vehicles parked in the slot do not obstruct the regular movement of traffic,” the letter states.

If any of the many conditions put forth by the BMC are breached, the allotment will be terminated, warns the letter, which also makes it clear that the society does not have any right over the land which belongs to the BMC. There is also a clause stating that the society cannot claim any compensation from the BMC “in case the assistant commissioner, D ward, directs it to vacate the allotted pay-and-park before the due date if it is required for the BMC”.