The Indian Express 20.11.2013
BMC plans to hike charges at popular parking lots by 300%
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed to increase the cost of parking by a whopping 300 per cent in the most popular areas of the city.
Dividing the city into three zones, the civic administration has proposed a Rs 60 per hour charge for parking lots in "most popular" areas such as Fort, Nariman Point, Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Colaba among others. The existing parking fee for such lots is Rs 20 per hour. According to civic data, there are about 62 such parking lots in the city.
The area-based rating will mean a lesser hike for the least popular areas and higher for more popular ones, said officials. For example, parking lots in Kandivali's Charkop or Chembur's Shopper Stop will see a hike of 33 per cent in their parking charges, while those such as Regal or Lion Gate will see a 200 per cent rise to Rs 40 per hour.
The increase in the parking charges has been proposed for the next two years, after which the charges will be increased by 10 per cent every two years.
At present, there are 92 pay-and-park lots, of which 47 are in south Mumbai. In category A, the most populous lots include parking plots which are close to railway stations and markets such as Crawford Market, Churchgate and Lower Parel. Areas such as Prabhadevi and Siddhivinayak will see a two-fold hike under category B.
While the 92 public parking lots in the city can only accommodate 10,314 vehicles, the BMC has cleared 32 public parking proposals under the parking floor space index policy to create space for about 30,000 vehicles. The proposed policy, which has been submitted to the improvement committee, will come up for discussion next week.
The new policy has also suggested more parking charges from truck owners, private cars; on-duty taxis will be charged lesser in comparison to private cars. Charges will also differ for peak and non-peak hours, with a lesser amount levied on holidays.
"The policy is aimed at reducing traffic in congested areas and encouraging people to use public transport," said Ram Barot, improvement committee chairman and BJP corporator. In a bid to ease congestion near schools and colleges, the policy has also proposed to remove parking lots located within 100 m of such institutions.
The BMC has also planned to give parking permits to residents to park their cars on one side of the road. These residents will be given annual parking permits for these roads with no other car being allowed to park at these spots.
