EPCA comes out with parking management plan for Delhi

As per the directions issued by the Supreme Court to prepare a parking plan for the capital the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA).

Assessment of the Problem

• Some Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) have demarcated parking lots and are levying extra charges for keeping a second or third car. Hence free parking on public land continues to be a city-wide menace.
• A serious crisis of night-time parking exists which in turn is leading to obstruction on roads and problems with the movement of emergency vehicles, including ambulances, fire engines, etc.”
• Lack of regulation or charges over parking on public land adds to the menace, as most car owners, in order to avoid parking charges, shift to parking on the streets adding to congestion on the road.
• Multi-Level Car Parks (MLCPs) remain under-utilised because there is no parking charge on public land and parking in residential areas is not regulated or priced. As a result, there is no incentive to use the multi-level parking lots or to pay for these.

Recommendations of the EPCA

• Joint management of parking spaces to “ensure that there is coordination between different road types — service roads and residential lanes and commercial and mixed land use areas.
• Parking spill over from residential buildings will require management and multiplicity of responsibility is at the core of the problems of governance in the city and parking regulations must not add to this
• Pricing for residential parking should be determined jointly by the local agency and RWA/shop-keepers association and it must be based on the principle of charging differential and higher rates for additional cars
• The local parking plan must ensure that there is provision for movement of emergency vehicles and green areas, parks and footpaths may not be allowed to be used for parking
• The Delhi Police may be directed to greatly improve enforcement against illegal and unauthorised parking through state-of-the-art equipment, including cameras and automated challans.

The report notes that MLCPs are working at a loss, and these are just operational costs which “do not account for the price of land, which is exorbitant as these parking lots are located in prime residential areas.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2019