Noida approaches Delhi planning agency to maintain parking lots

Complaints of overcharging by contractors and parking mafia encroaching upon public land to run unauthorised parking lots are numerous.

Finding parking space in the city will cease to be a problem if the agency taking care of urban transport planning in Delhi agrees to the Noida authority’s proposal to maintain parking lots in Noida. The Noida authority on Friday contacted Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System Ltd (DIMTS) asking the agency to take over all parking lots in the city.

Noida traffic police tow away cars parked illegally outside Logix mall in Noida. The drive has been initiated to decongest city roads. (HT Photo)

The DIMTS is a joint venture of the Delhi government and the IDFC Foundation with a focus on urban transportation. They have been providing concept support to commissioning, consultancy, intelligent transport system solutions and urban transport asset management services for the last 10 years.

Parking vehicles is a major cause of concern for commuters in Noida. Complaints of overcharging by contractors and parking mafia encroaching upon public land to run unauthorised parking lots are numerous.

On Wednesday, the Allahabad high court questioned why each Noida sector could not have a multilevel parking in response to a case filed by a Sector 15 resident, Shrikant Vaidya. The respondent’s counsel had submitted before the court that Noida was “an old city and, hence, it is not possible to have multilevel parking lots in every sector”. The next hearing in the case is on April 10.

Deepak Agarwal, chief executive officer (CEO), Noida Authority, said he has urged the DIMTS to find a solution to parking woes in the city. “The DIMTS is currently not taking any new projects of managing parking lots. However, I have spoken to a senior official in charge of the agency and requested him to rethink. I have also asked a senior official, Ram Shekhar, to partly take over the management of parking areas in the city. The official has promised to consider our proposal. We will schedule a meeting next week to take the matter further,” he said.

Rama Raman, principal secretary (industries) and chairman of the Noida Authority, after reviewing the deplorable parking conditions in the city, had decided to hand over a parking lot in Sector 15 to the DIMTS as a pilot project in January 2016. However, it did not come through.

According to officials, the DIMTS has already conducted detailed surveys of the city across residential, institutional, industrial and commercial sectors to draw the parking management plan in January 2016.

“If the DIMTS is appointed for the purpose, parking facilities will get streamlined on the lines of parking being done in Delhi,” Agarwal said.