1 parking lot for 4 apartments in city not enough, say experts

Need BMC to create multi-storey parking lots so roads are unclogged

The Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR) 2034 don’t address the problem of insufficient parking space in residential buildings, forcing flat owners to park on roads, claim experts and urban planners.

BMC needs to build more public parking lots in the city. (HT Photo)

The rules make it mandatory for the builder to give one parking lot for every four apartments admeasuring approximately 480sqft or every two apartments admeasuring about 645sqft. “Parking space in residential buildings is dependent on flat size. Every small flat doesn’t have a parking lot. The actual number of cars in any building exceeds the number of parking spaces. Ideally, every flat should get one parking slot, to tackle the problem of on-street parking,” Vilas Nagalkar, a senior architect.

The Development Control Regulations (DCR) 1991 did not allot parking lots for apartments admeasuring less than 400sqft. “The rule was revised in 2009, as the civic body began to address the issue of rising on-street parking. After 2009, one parking lot was to be allotted for every four small flats. That provision remains in the DCPR 2034. But in today’s time, this is not enough,” said Nagalkar.

Ashok Datar, a transport expert, said, “ Parking in a residential building is not part of the FSI granted to the building. The builder doesn’t pay for it. We need to charge for on-street parking, and create public parking lots.”