No shops will start till parking problem fixed: SC committee

The much hyped multi-level parking complexes in the city may run into trouble because of a directive from the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee. Hamari Jamatia reports.

The much hyped multi-level parking complexes in the city may run into trouble because of a directive from the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee.

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The committee has directed the civic agency to bar use of commercial space in a parking complex till the full target of its parking capacity is reached.

Following reports of technical glitch at the Sarojini Nagar multi-level parking, the only such parking lot opened in the city, the committee told the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) that till the time the multi-level structure is i

n a position to fill all 824 slots, the concessionaire, who has built the structure on build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis, should not be allowed to operate the first two storeys as shops and eating joints.

The rule is likely to be applied to all such multi-level parking complexes so that the contractor's priority becomes parking and not building shopping malls.

At present a few cars are parked at the structure as it takes an average of 20-30 minutes to retrieve a car. Shoppers going to Sarojini Nagar prefer to park on the roadside that has been turned into a surface parking, nullifying the purpose of a multi-level parking. Nagendra Singh, a regular visitor to Sarojini Nagar, said, "After reading about technical glitches in the newspapers and witnessing delays in retrieving cars, I have not dared to park my car there."

"There are several complaints about the multi-level parking which is why not many people are using it. The NDMC should ask the concessionaire to first smoothen out all technical glitches and only then should it be allowed to use the commercial space," he said.

According to NDMC officials, a survey of the problems at the multi-level parking has been done and a team is monitoring and trying to fix the challenges.

The Sarojini Nagar multi-level parking was inaugurated in November 2011. On December 31, it developed a technical glitch and users had to wait for hours to get their cars out.

NDMC is on its way to inaugurate another such parking lot at Baba Kharak Singh Marg.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is also building 14 such structures in the city.