Buildings near Metro station to get less parking space

Under the new norms, all new buildings (except residential), coming up near Metro stations and multilevel car parking lots will have 10%-30% less parking space than what is allowed under the current policy.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on Tuesday approved dynamic parking norms for the national capital in a bid to address the issue of traffic congestion by limiting parking space, and encouraging people to use public transport.

The Supreme Court termed parking as one of the “most serious problems” while hearing a case in September 2019. (HT File Photo)

Under the new norms, all new buildings (except residential), coming up near Metro stations and multilevel car parking lots will have 10%-30% less parking space than what is allowed under the current policy.

The new regulations were placed in the public domain for scrutiny and feedback in March. They will now be sent to the Union housing and urban affairs ministry for notification, said a senior DDA official.

The Supreme Court termed parking as one of the “most serious problems” while hearing a case in September 2019.

“Currently, parking norms are based on the designated use of the premises. It has been observed that the surplus parking from buildings spills over to roads and results in congestion in public spaces. The new parking norms have been worked out based on the availability of the Metro network, other modes of public transport (including cab aggregators) and multi-level car parking facilities,” the official cited above said, requesting anonymity.

The rules for plotted residential areas remain unchanged, but those for group housing societies have been altered.

The rules for plotted residential areas remain unchanged, but those for group housing societies have been altered. A second DDA official said the new policy will be applicable on ongoing projects, especially those in various stages of approval. However, deductions for Metro and multilevel parking lots will not apply to residential buildings or areas.

“For residential areas, DDA has proposed to take the number of dwelling units as the baseline instead of the built-up area,” the second DDA official said.

Currently, the scale used to calculate parking space for group housing is two equivalent car spaces (ECS) per 100sqm of built-up area. It will now be changed to one ECS per dwelling unit for societies where each house/flat has an area between 40sqm and 100sqm. “But in case of government housing, the norms of General Pool Residential Accommodation colonies will be adopted,” the second DDA official said.

Transport expert Amit Bhatt, director transport at World Resources Institute (WRI) India, welcomed the new regulations. “It will encourage people to use public transport. A lot of cities world over are moving towards capping the maximum parking space. This should be done in Delhi too,” he said.