Radical parking plan to decongest city

PARKING POLICY FOR DELHI Suggests hike in parking rates, incremental increase in road tax, jail term for unauthorised parking

Parking your vehicle on a footpath might get you arrested and secure a trip to jail.

The draft Parking Policy for Delhi has suggested making parking on footpaths a cognisable offence under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. For a cognisable offence, the police can arrest the violator without a warrant.

This is one of the various measures being planned as part of the policy that has been approved by lieutenant governor Anil Baijal.

Parking rates in Delhi were last revised in 2014. The increased fee by the municipal corporations can easily be called a token amount it costs only ₹20 per to park a car for an hour.

Experts have been arguing for years that the civic bodies should increase parking fee to deter people from buying new cars but they claimed it was never done mostly due to political reasons.

With the parking policy ready, this is going to change. While no kind of parking is going to be free, differential rates will be introduced. “The civic bodies should use a wide variety of tools for dynamic pricing. They can use time variable charges such as higher rates during peak hour, progressive increase in rates per hour, differentiation in parking fees can be done according to zone, peak hour demand and rates for weekdays and weekends,” the policy states.

According to government estimates, Delhi’s municipal corporations are likely to earn an additional ₹500-₹600 per annum by increasing parking rates.

Officially, there are 250 surface parking sites across the city. However, the stretches where cars are illegally parked along roads and on footpaths are far more than the designated spaces. In places such as Kamla Market, the parking mafia allows illegal parking, officials of North Delhi Municipal Corporation said.

The policy aims to change the trend by laying seven conditions for contractors. “Get full details of contractor to ensure that cartelisation is not happening (through affidavits and physical verification). Take adequate security deposit to check misuse (NDMC takes two months advance license fee+ four months’ security; MCD takes a year’s money in advance; sites are auctioned for two years),” the document read.

It suggested imposing strict penalties for violations and made it mandatory for contractors to use hand-held devices instead of issuing paper slips.

Surface parking is seen as the cheapest form of parking as the opportunity cost of land is not reflected in the charges. At the same time, multi-level parking (MLP) is grossly underutilised. Citing examples of the MLPs at Sarojini Nagar and Hauz Khas, the policy talks of reducing rates at such facilities and increasing it for surface parking.

“On-street parking may be priced three times higher than off street. On street parking may be priced for every 30 minute per lot, increasing as per the formula 2x+10, where x is the charge for the previous hour, up to a maximum of three hours. Heavy penalties to be levied beyond three hours..,” it said.

Apart from this, some commercial roads will be declared “no parking” roads. It also suggested that at least 75% capacity of parking lots around commercial areas be kept for short-term parking, meaning for visitors. This is to prevent shopkeepers and office-goers from blocking spaces throughout the day. They would be pushed to use MLPs.

There are over six lakh transport vehicles that are registered in Delhi alone. Apart from this, thousands of cabs are plying illegally. For enforcement officials, the problem has been that most of the commercial vehicles are parked illegally along arterial roads and even in residential areas creating a safety hazard.

For this, the policy states, “Overnight parking of buses, trucks, tourist buses, vans, water tankers, containers, lorries etc. may be allowed only along notified roads during night hours only upon certain payment to local bodies/PWD to discourage haphazard parking. Such areas should be brought under the management of private service providers for realisation of parking charges. No parking should be allowed except on notified roads.”

Presently, Delhi Traffic Police is mandated to take action against unauthorised parking. Agencies such as the PWD, DDA or MCDs which actually own the roads and maintain them have no power to prosecute the encroachers.

The new policy suggests giving enforcement powers for challaning to local bodies and the PWD under the provisions of Motor Vehicles Act, 1988.

“The MCDs have enforcement staff but due to their multifarious duties, it is recommended that they should create a dedicated enforcement cell to regulate parking in their areas by exercising these powers,” it added.

About seven lakh vehicles are registered in a year and the law does not prescribe any limit for purchase of motor vehicles.

In order to discourage ownership of multiple cars by one individual, incremental increase in road tax would be considered.

The transport department will prepare a policy to disincentivise purchase of multiple cars in the name of an individual or family and for that purpose incremental increase in road tax will be proposed.

“While the contemporary view considers car as a necessity for work or to ferry an elderly parent or a child to school, it suggests that fairness lies in keeping car ownership accessible for all. Till the ownership is limited to requirement, it may remain a necessity but the ownership of multiple cars is broadly a luxury which needs to be discouraged and the next step for that purpose is to tax progressively upwards, the second, third and fourth car,” the report stated.

Rationalisation of parking charges

Parking charges on residential streets

Strict enforcement action against illegal parking on public streets

Creation of automated parking system

Parking on footpaths to be made a cognisable offence

Park and Ride facilities

Registration of commercial vehicles to be linked with the availability of space to park

Incremental increase in road tax to discourage ownership of Strict enforcement action against illegal parking on public streets

No subletting of parking contracts

Development of Multi Level Parking

Policy to allow vacant plots in colonies for development as parking lots on payment basis

Prioritisation of parking of NMVs such as cycles, cycle rickshaws, cycle rickshaw trolleys and other modes of slow moving transport; as well as para transit modes such as autorickshaws

multiple cars by an individual

Amendment in Motor Vehicles Act to increase penalty for illegal parking Identification of space for parking of commercial vehicles More power to road owning agencies to remove encroachments Policy to allow vacant plots in colonies to be used as parking lots Amendment in policy for parking norms in government buildings vis-a-vis private buildings North Delhi