Want to add a floor? Get parking first

Planning an extra floor? This should worry you. According to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), anyone who wants to expand his house horizontally or vertically needs to create a parking space in the existing structure. Neelam Pandey reports.

Planning an extra floor? This should worry you. According to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), anyone who wants to expand his house horizontally or vertically needs to create a parking space in the existing structure.

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This means, if you want to add an extra floor to an existing two-floor building, you’ll either have to demolish a portion of the ground floor to accommodate the additional car space or dig a basement. If you can’t do that, be happy with what you’ve got.

The civic agency has issued a circular making construction of parking space within the building mandatory, failing which building plans will not be sanctioned.

For instance, in a plot measuring 400 square meters, nine equivalent car spaces (equivalent car space is the space occupied by a vehicle) will have to be created within the building. One ECS inside a basement is around 288 square meters.

“If one wants to create an additional floor, the parking requirement has to be taken care of. Otherwise, people will end up parking vehicles on the streets. A building plan will only be sanctioned if they meet this requirement,” said a senior MCD official.

“If owners want to get the benefits of the increased floor area ratio under the 2021 Delhi Masterplan they need to make provisions for parking,” added the official.