E-Challan likely to hit Delhi soon

Source: Hindustan Time, Delhi Edition, 22.01.2013

Parking projects way off mark

New Delhi: Like many of the erstwhile MCD’s ambitious parking projects, the stack parking on Sat Bhirawan Road, Karol Bagh, has also missed several deadlines. The project, which was sanctioned in 2009, is yet to be made operational. MCD had also planned a multilevel automated parking under PPP model at Shastri Park in Karol Bagh but it never took off due to poor response from bidders. 
    Despite collecting Rs 29 crore from traders as parking charges, North Corporation, created after the MCD trifurcation in April, has not been able to create new parking space in the market. “Over the years, the footfall in the Karol Bagh market has increased manifolds, but the corporation has done little to address the parking problem. The stack parking was to be completed before the Commonwealth Games but it is yet to be made operational,” said Lovleen Kumar, who owns a guesthouse. 
    Kumar claims the project is not feasible. “The parking lot has been constructed on the road. This will block traffic movement. The corporation planned this project in a hurry.” 
    Officials say the Rs 80-lakh project got delayed as it was challenged by a trader in the Delhi high court. But sources say the matter was resolved in August 2010. “After the court case, the project was put on hold due to Commonwealth Games. The construction work started in December 2010,” said an official. The parking, which has space for 90 cars, was to be completed within six months but the project got stuck in bureaucratic process. Similarly, the proposed parking near Jessa Ram Hospital is yet to be tendered. 
    While shoppers and traders complain about parking problems, the corporation has done little to identify new space. The corporation has seven authorized parking sites. Illegal parking is happening on all arterial roads. “They overcharge people and block the entire road as cars are parked in double lanes,” said Murli Mani, president of Karol Bagh Traders’ Association. 
    According to Yogender Chandolia, chairman, standing committee, North Corporation, “The stack parking was planned for the Commonwealth Games. But we could not start the project due to legal issues. We hope to complete it by early next year. As for Shastri Park, we will again float tenders. We are also going to identify new surface-level parking sites.”

Source: TOI (11 Dec, 2012)

It’s time we are made to pay for the space our cars occupy

In their first budget presentation last week after the trifurcation in April this year, Delhi’s three civic agencies proposed to increase parking charges and introduce variable rates. But with the state assembly elections due next year, it seems unlikely that our politicos would want to ruin their poll prospects by pushing unpopular reforms.

Thanks to the city’s unmanageable and ever-growing fleet of private vehicles, parking, according a study by the Centre for Science and Environment, devours close to 10 per cent of the urban land in Delhi. In certain localities, as much as 45 per cent of the circulation area is under parking encroachment and valuable urban space is offered for parking either free or for a pittance, the study says.

Except for a few pockets in New Delhi, in most parts of the city parking a car for up to 10 hours costs just R10. If you do not mind the risk involved, you can park under flyovers, in parks and bylanes or simply on pavements where parking is free unless the space has been taken over by the parking mafia that runs more than 100 illegal parking lots in the city.

In comparison, Delhi’s 300-odd legal parking lots can accommodate only 30,000 cars, clearly not enough for a city that adds 700 cars every day.

Residential areas are the worst hit. A single or double storey house that owned one car has now become multi-storey apartments housing six to eight families who own as many cars, often more.

And, while the prices for the housing space have skyrocketed, the parking space on public land has remained virtually free. Civic agencies charge no tax other than a one-time payment of a few thousand rupees at the time of registration of the vehicle.

Delhi has no law to stop those without legal parking space from buying cars. Experts say parking fees should be able to recover the cost of the land used to park the car. Builders are already doing it in the National Capital Region where an additional parking space in a gated community costs as much as R3 lakh.

The unified MCD made it mandatory for all new constructions to have stilt parking. But there is no enforcement to check if cars are actually parked in the slit parking. The result is the spillover on roads.

The government agencies have also failed to rein in the parking mafia who overcharge users and encroach on public land. Only a handful of parking lots issue electronic receipts or have their boundaries demarcated. Most proposals to build automated multi-level parking lots have remained buried in files. The two that did come up remain grossly under-utilised.

Civic agencies have failed to integrate these facilities with surface car parks, which are way cheaper and a lesser hassle because they are closer to the markets. To recover land cost, a multi-level car parking should charge at least R40 per hour, CSE has estimated. But our civic agencies do not want to go beyond R20 even in the new proposed rates.

Rational parking fees and congestion taxes work better when availability of public transport to congested areas discourage cars.

But little has been done to improve the last-mile connectivity in Delhi. For residential areas, the Supreme Court-appointed environment panel wants residents to pay a monthly fee for parking space and proposes a penalty of R600 per day for the violators.

Source: Hindustan Times, Delhi Edition, (10.12.2012)

Hike proposed for only surface parkings

NEW DELHI: Just like other municipal commissioners, south Delhi commissioner Manish Gupta too recommended a hike in parking charges, but only for surface lots. The charges for parking at premium sites will see a major hike. Gupta said increasing parking rates was the only way to discourage use of cars in the city.

He proposed that parking lots in the area be divided into three categories.

Category A will have premium surface parking lots in main markets such as Lajpat Nagar, Defence Colony and South Extension, etc. The rest of the surface parkings will fall under Category B. Category C will consist of multi-level, automatic and underground parkings.

Parking your car in Category A will cost R10 for half an hour, R20 for half an hour to one hour and R50 for up to three hours. After that, an additional R20 per hour will be charged. For Category B, the charges will rise to R10 for an hour, R20 for two hours and R50 for two to six hours. Currently, the charges are a flat R10 for 10 hours.

Charges for Category C parkings may remain unchanged.

In his budget speech, Gupta had said the civic body will focus on creating more multi-level and commercial parkings for its residents. He also said that only one car per family will be allowed in the parking sites of markets.

Proposing modernisation of the parking system, the commissioner told the House that there were plans to introduce hand-held computerised billing machines for parking lots. “We are also planning to come up with smart cards to reduce incidences of fraud,” he added.

Source: Hindustan Times, Delhi Edition, (07.12.2012)

Parking charges increased to ‘create more parking sites’

NEW DELHI: East Delhi may not have proper parking infrastructure in place but the municipal corporation has proposed a hike in parking charges nonetheless.

ARIJIT SEN/HT FILE

By hiking parking charges, the corporation wants to discourage the use of cars for short distances.

Going by East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) commissioner SS Yadav’s proposals, car owners may have to pay R10 for parking a car for half an hour, R20 for half an hour to one hour, R50 for up to three hours and R20 for every additional hour after that.

An extra 50 per cent charges will be added to the bill during peak hours of 5pm-9pm. Currently, the charges are a flat R10 for 10 hours.

Yadav said not only are the current parking rates too low but by hiking them, they will be discouraging the use of private cars for short distances. “The price of every commodity has gone up. The revenue generated will be used for creating more parking facilities,” he said.

The corporation has also proposed to increase the monthly car parking pass from R500 to R1,500.

Yadav said that in the past six months, the number of surface parking sites had risen from 15 to 50 and by next year, it will rise to 100. Areas where new parking sites have been set up include Nirman Vihar, Preet Vihar, Yamuna Vihar and Laxmi Nagar, among others.

He spoke about the plan to build multi-level car parking-cum-commercial projects in public private partnership at Babarpur, the toll tax office near Apsara Border and the Anaj Mandi in Shahdara. The process of appointment of a consultant has already been initiated.

Source: Hindustan Times, Delhi Edition, (07.12.2012)

L-G OKAYS STEEP HIKE IN PARKING CHARGES

Get ready to pay more for parking your car in authorised parking lots in the city.
Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna (L-G) on Thursday gave in-principle approval to increase parking charges substantially.
Sources said the L-G asked all stakeholders to formulate a proper policy to check the number of private vehicles, which are growing at a steady pace.

According to the new proposal, motorists will have to pay R30 for the first hour and R40 each for every subsequent hour to park vehicles.
Sources said the agencies concerned had been asked to send their final suggestions. Once they all give their approval in writing, the charges would be increased.
In a high-level meeting attended by Delhi chief secretary PK Tripathi, transport secretary R Chandramohan, heads of the four municipal bodies, EPCA chairman Bhure Lal, traffic chief Satyendra Garg, Khanna said the parking issue should be streamlined and asked agencies to draw a consensus.

The agencies also proposed to make it mandatory for people to declare parking space while buying a new car. Officials said countries such as Japan have made it mandatory for car buyers to declare parking space.

Source: Hindustan Times: Delhi Edition, (17.08.2012)

Making space in a crowded city

The NCR is crumbling under the pressure of vehicles. And multi-level parkings cannot be the only way out of this parking mess. The solution lies in ensuring that parking lots are built within deadlines, ensuring the existing ones operate smoothly, converting illegal parkings into legal ones and promoting public transport.

Sample this: Less than a month after its inauguration, cars were stuck in the Rs. 80 crore Sarojini Nagar automatic multi-level parking for two hours due to a technical snag. The Haryana Urban Development Authority’s (HUDA) proposal to construct four multi-level parkings has not materialised while the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon’s (MCG) plan to build a multi-level lot in old Gurgaon is stuck in red tape.

The Sarojini Nagar parking project, experts say, was carried out without a clear strategy. “Commuters still prefer to park their vehicles in surface parkings,” said Anumita Roy Chowdhary, from Centre for Science and Environment (CSE). The new multi-level parking on BKS Marg too is used below its capacity. The CSE, in a study, found that multi-level parkings are operating at a mere 20 to 40% of their capacity.

On the other hand, the NDMC and the three municipal corporations are dragging their feet on the construction of 15 new parking projects, that are supposed to make space for nearly 5,000.

Gurgaon too is not much different. Considering the mess, both HUDA and MCD have promised to improve the existing lots and create new ones. “We will build another 10 to 15 parking lots wherever possible,” said Praveen Kumar, HUDA administrator, despite the fact that nothing has moved forward on the earlier announced two projects. Similarly, MCG Chief Engineer BS Singroha said, “Our project may take months or years. But we have started improving the existing parking lots.”

In Noida, authorities are planning to tackle the situation by building more multi-level parkings — two will be built in Sector 18, another will come up at Sector 38A at the Botanical Garden Metro station. Together, they will be able to accommodate 8,000 vehicles. The deadline: Next 18 months.

What also remains to be done is putting an end to the parking mafia, which the Noida police say they will do by equipping parking attendants hand-held devices to issue parking slips. The contractors will be asked to get the police verification of attendants done. Noida Authority is planning to make contractors liable for cars stolen from their parking lot by making them submit Rs. 5 lakh as compensation if a car is stolen from their parking lot.

Source: Hindustan Times, (09.08.2012)Original Article