SC panel against dilution of policy on paid parking in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Authorities must charge a fee for parking of vehicles in residential neighbourhoods, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) told the Supreme Court on Friday, taking a stand that’s opposed to the Delhi government’s.

In a report it submitted to the SC, the EPCA also recommended that the apex court ask the Delhi government to notify the Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Rules, 2017, “without any modifications or deletions at the earliest”.

The report by the Sc-mandated authority comes in the backdrop of the top court’s criticism of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of Delhi for repeated delays in enforcing the parking policy, which it said was crucial to decongest the national capital and to combat air pollution.

After the Delhi government told the Supreme Court earlier this month that it would remove the clause of enforcing a parking fee in residential neighbourhoods, the top court had asked EPCA to hold a meeting of stakeholders and submit recommendations on the matter. The court is scheduled to hear the case again on Monday.

The policy was first proposed in 2017 and a final draft was ready by January 2018. Since then, it has been going back and forth between transport minister Kailash Gahlot’s office and other departments of the Delhi government.

In its report, EPCA said it is of the “strong view” that deletion of provisions concerning residential parking will make the parking policy “toothless” and “defeat the very purpose” of the upcoming rules.

“As rates are enhanced in commercial areas, people will park in residential areas… If the rules are enacted [without deletion] then residents will benefit, as demarcation of legal parking areas and parking charges will help contain the spillover of vehicles from already saturated neighbouring areas as well as from nearby commercial areas that have priced parking. Mixed land-use areas are particularly vulnerable to this problem,” said the nine-page report, accessed by Hindustan Times.

It also reasoned that parking pressure in residential areas “has become a serious law and order problem.” Around 250 calls are made to the Delhi police everyday about brawls over parking. Apart from charging a fee for stationing a car on public land in residential neighbourhoods, the proposed parking policy also states that those who park outside the approved stilt parking of their houses will have to pay twice the normal rate.