Reconstituted parking authority makes a comeback in Mumbai civic body budget

The Mumbai parking authority (MPA), the apex independent body that will be formed as per the Development Control and Promotion Regulation (2034), to regulate the street and off-street parking in space-starved Mumbai, has yet again found a special mention in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) budget 2021, presented by municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Wednesday

The Mumbai parking authority (MPA), the apex independent body that will be formed as per the Development Control and Promotion Regulation (2034), to regulate the street and off-street parking in space-starved Mumbai, has yet again found a special mention in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) budget 2021, presented by municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Wednesday. The roads and traffic department has been allotted ₹1,600 crore in the budget 2021. The MPA will utilise funds from this budget head.

BMC Commissioner Iqbal Chahal (right) with Standing Committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav while presenting the BMC Budget 2021-22, at BMC Headquarters. (HT PHOTO)

The MPA was reconstituted in January this year. BMC has appointed Tata Insitute of Social Sciences (TISS), as the agency from where urban planners, traffic planners, urban designers, and geographic information system (GIS) designers are being roped in, to help with MPA’s work. The first meeting of the body, after it was reconstituted, took place on January 18.

A senior civic officer from BMC’s traffic department said, “The body has not yet been legally formed. We have sought legal opinion about it. Presently, it has been given the timeline of one year to complete tasks at hand, which include ward-wise survey and GIS mapping of street and off-street parking and formulation of the parking policy, fee structure, among other things.”

Since many stakeholders will be involved in the working of the MPA, including BMC, Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), private bus operators, Regional Transport Office (RTO), Mumbai Police, and traffic police, the civic body is examining how to make the MPA a legally strong body. The MPA will bring all these stakeholders together. In the coming year, BMC will decide on the legal structure of the body. It may set up the MPA under the BMC Act by making amendments to the Act. All functions of parking within the city implemented by different authorities are proposed to be merged into MPA. Personnel from other departments will work on deputation in MPA to carry out its functions.

An expert associated with the MPA said, “So far, a lot of work has already been done by MPA, which will be carried forward. For example, we were in talking with residential complexes to use their parking spaces on a paid basis. A lot has changed during the work from home scenario. Now, residential complexes may not have as much parking space, but commercial complexes will. So we are fine-tuning these details.”