The Hindu             20.12.2011

A master plan of parking problems

Raviprasad Kamila

CHAOS: The vehicles parking haphazard near Central Market in Mangalore on Monday. Photo: H.S.MANJUNATH

Minister for Urban Development, Law and Parliamentary
Affairs S. Suresh Kumar at a press conference here on November 25, 2009
went on record that the builders of some commercial complexes and
high-rise buildings in the city had made no provision for parking
facility.

The space meant for parking, he went on,
had been utilised for other purposes. As a result, vehicles were being
parked on the road in front of such buildings.

Incidentally,
it is the department headed by the same Minister which has now given
green signal for regulations that could further aggravate the situation.

The Ministry has allowed taking up additional
construction in the existing non-residential buildings (read as
commercial) in the city without creating parking facility within the
premises.

If owners of such buildings have not been
able to provide parking facility, under the new regulations, they will
have to pay prescribed fee to the Mangalore Urban Development Authority
(MUDA) for constructing multi-level car parking (MLCP) facilities.

Such
a provision had been incorporated in the zonal regulations of Master
Plan II (the document that is expected to work as guide for the planned
growth of the city). The plan is designed for Mangalore Local Planning
Area revised by the MUDA for the second time. The Government notified
the revised regulations on October 26, 2011. The MUDA is expected to use
the fee amount for constructing multi-level car parking facility (MLCP)
in the “vicinity”.

Objection

President
of the Nagarika Hitarakshana Samiti G. Hanumantha Kamath has taken
objection to this stating that the provisions would only prompt more
constructions without parking facility. This would aggravate the parking
problem in the city, he said. “Then parking on roadside will increase.
Who will park their vehicles away and then walk to the building?” he
questioned.

In a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Urban Development, he sought deletion of this clause.

Mr.
Suresh Kumar said in 2009 that the Government had been planning to
build multi-level parking lots at 10 places in the city. One such
structure would come up at Hampankatta.

“Where is
the much hyped MLCP proposed to be built by MUDA at Hampankatta,” Mr.
Kamath asked. No effort has been made to build MLCPs at other places in
the city.

A senior official in the Town Planning
section at the Mangalore City Corporation said the clauses in question
were not feasible. Constructing MLCPs as mentioned in the clause was not
a viable solution. The MUDA’s proposal of building a MLCP at
Hampankatta is now in cold storage, the official said. The official said
that even though the clause had been added in the zonal regulation, the
corporation would think twice before approving such proposals. The
council of the MCC in its special meeting on December 12 recommended to
the MUDA and the Government to drop Clause 19.9 as it would only
aggravate parking problem in the city.

Mr. Kamath
said the samiti did not endorse clause 19.8 in the regulations which
allows builders of non-residential properties to provide parking
elsewhere.

Purushotham Kottari, President, Mangalore
Civil Contractors’ Association, who did not endorse clause 19.9, said
that clause 19.8 could be accepted if parking facility was created
within 100 ft distance from a building and not beyond that.

P.M.A.
Razak, president, Mangalore Chapter of Confederation of Real Estate
Developers Association of India (CREDAI), said that Clause 19.9 was not
feasible. In the existing building, once its owner used the floor area
ratio (FAR) available how can one take up additional construction, he
asked.

Mr. Razak said that MLCPs were needed to
de-congest the city of the traffic problem. It is the duty of the
Government to build more MLCPs in the city. Vijay Vishnu Mayya,
president, Association of Consulting Civil Engineers, Mangalore, said
Clauses 19.8 and 19.9 were not practical. But there was need for MLCPs
in the city.