40,000 parking slots gone

The city is set to lose 40,000 parking slots. The EPCA and Delhi Traffic Police have cut down the number of parking lots in the city from 800 to 400, reports Neelam Pandey.

The city is set to lose 40,000 parking slots. The Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) and Delhi Traffic Police have cut down the number of parking lots in the city from 800 to 400.

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There are 57 lakh cars and two-wheelers in the city, and the 800-odd parking lots, legal and illegal, provided space for 80,000 vehicles at any given time of the day. Approximately 1,000 new vehicles are registered every day in Delhi, which means an increase of 30,000 vehicles in a month.

As per the EPCA, fewer parking slots will encourage Delhiites to use public transport and discourage use of private vehicles. They also say that scrapping these parking lots will enable smooth flow of traffic.

“The Delhi Traffic Police had carried out a field survey to ascertain the feasibility of existing parking lots. They have rejected nearly 400 such lots that were mostly on the roadside and on service lanes,” said Sunita Narain, member of EPCA.

Of the 500 parking sites the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) recommended to Delhi Traffic Police, 250 have been rejected. Of the 47 lots suggested on PWD roads, the Traffic Police rejected 44.

As per the new policy, parking vehicles on the roadside will not be allowed in most cases. Moreover, service lanes will also not be used for parking vehicles.

While the surface parking space has been reduced, MCD, which is supposed to come up with 15 multi-level parking projects, has started work on only one at Kamla Nagar. The NDMC that maintains 54 parking lots has also proposed three multi-level parking projects, of which only one is under construction.