Facing space crunch, MCDS wary of charging high fee

NEWDELHI: Political leaders of the three municipal corporations of Delhi (MCDS) were not very enthused about the Base Fare Committee planning to introduce higher rates for their parking lots across the city.

Many said, while requesting not to be named, that this would also not augur well for them, especially since the Delhi Assembly elections are due early in 2020.

“We are the local governance body and will have to enforce the new parking policy, which will not go down well with RWAS and general people,” said a municipal councilor. “First, it was the sealing drive in markets and factories, which was actually supposed to be carried out by the Delhi government, but we were unnecessarily involved; and now, we will have to implement the higher parking rates as well.”

Bhupender Gupta, Standing Committee Chairperson of SDMC, said, “There are two provisions which have been left to the municipal corporations to decide. One is the ‘peak hours,’ whether it would be 5-7 pm or 6-8 pm for example; and second is the ‘multiplication factor for parking vehicles in highly crowded areas’ like South Extension and Karol Bagh. The committee has said that this multiplication factor can be maximum three times, but we will definitely not raise it more than 1.5-2 times. There’s no point overburdening people with parking fees when as many legal parking spaces are not available.”

Mayor of North MCD, Avtar Singh, said, “Whatever (new parking rates) is decided by the committee, it will have to be approved in our House meeting. While we understand that the Supreme Court orders to decongest Delhi and remove on-street parking must be complied with, we cannot load people with new taxes.”

The panel has said that this multiplication factor can be maximum three times, but we will definitely not raise it more than 1.5-2 times. There’s no point burdening people as many legal parking spaces are not available BHUPENDER GUPTA, sdmc BS VOHRA, President, East Delhi RWA Joint Front