Why e-challans are no deterrent to illegal parking
MUMBAI: Paucity of space has been a Mumbai reality for many years, which over time has only become acute. While this directly hits the housing sector, availability of basic amenities such adequate space for parking is equally compromised – in Mumbai the spill-overs are evident and lead to blocking free flow of traffic.
Vehicles parked on main roads and by-lanes are a common sight, as the difference between the number of vehicles and available parking spaces is stark, said a traffic expert who insisted on an urgent need for solutions to the problem. (See box.) The issue has become so grave that in 2022, residents of Tilak Nagar sought the Bombay high court’s intervention for implementation of a comprehensive parking policy to prevent unorganised vehicular movement due to rampant illegal road-side parking in the city. This was done as it had been observed that traffic police issuing e-challans to offenders over the years yielded no results. Members of the Janhit Manch, an NGO that takes up citizens’ issues and known to file PILS to highlight them, had also approached HC at the time bringing to the fore how the lack of adequate parking spaces leads to unauthorized parking on roads and pavements, which inconveniences citizens.
“The problem is not parking, it is free parking,” said a traffic expert, blaming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of faulty parking management and traffic police ignoring illegal parking over the years.
Traffic police officials said motorists prefer to park on the streets for free rather than spend money and time looking for parking lots. “At times, we encounter cases of double and even triple parking on roads which obstructs free flow of traffic. And all we can do is issue e-challans to the vehicle owners or tow away their vehicles wherever possible,” said Anil Kumbhare, joint commissioner of police, Traffic.
Traffic experts say e-challans for obstruction to traffic have not acted as a deterrent “as illegal parking has grown by leaps and bounds”. “This anarchy was helplessly allowed by traffic police and/or BMC for the valuable space under 50+ flyovers in Mumbai,” said traffic expert Ashok Datar. He added, increase in the number of vehicles in the city and lack of parking spaces has led to a state of chaos – every inch of available open public space on any street and lane has now been encroached by illegal parking. Another traffic expert pointed to how many parking lots opened by BMC across the city have become a flourishing business for second-hand car or motorcycle vendors. “Instagram and Youtube are flush with vlogs of these second-hand vehicle dealers who pay for the parking space and operate out of BMC’S parking lots,” he said.
Vijayshree Pednekar, an architect and transport planner from The Urban Project agreed. She said that each car which is about four meters in width needs three parking spaces in the city in a day (home, office and marketplace or place of education). “Every car is normally driven for just two hours and remains parked for the rest of 22 hours and requires around 2.5 meter-5.5 meter of space for that,” said Pednekar.
Experts said that Mumbai has the highest parking requirements of 2.17 car parking spaces/ 100 sq mtr of built-up area, even though the car ownership rate is low -- 48 cars per 1,000 people. “BMC has created parking lots but forgot to create a mechanism to prevent parking on the streets,” said Pednekar, underscoring the need for a proper parking management system and appointment of wardens.
Most people are ready to pay for parking, however, parking economics should be taken into consideration and a small fee should be charged, said Pednekar. She also said that on-street parking should also be permitted on a priority basis and the space a vehicle seeks to occupy. Kumbhare insisted that the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA), a decision-making body for parking issues, of BMC should implement their draft policy to streamline on-street and off-street parking as soon as possible. MPA was set up following an HC order in November last year, mandating that BMC form a body like the London Parking Authority.
It comprises a team of urban, policy, transport and environmental planners, and technical analysts. MPA is headed by Ramnath Jha, chairperson of Mumbai Heritage Conservation Committee. Prachi Merchant, a senior urban planner from MPA, said the new policy will be a break-away from the earlier policy which was just a price chart and will be a “comprehensive document on parking”. Under the new policy, every ward and street in Mumbai will have a parking plan – some streets will have pay-and-park spaces or will be declared no-parking zones.