Urban News

Indian Express 23.11.2009

4 years on, little progress in Kamla Nagar parking project

Four years after announcing its plan of building the first fully automatic multi-level parking lot at Kamla Nagar market in the Capital, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has done little work in this regard.

Lieutenant Governor Tejendra Khanna had laid the foundation stone for the project in 2007. At the spot for the project, however, there has been close to no action since then.

The civic body has now announced that the tender for the project was awarded two months ago and work has finally already begun.

The site selected for the project, a park at a roundabout, tells a different story. The roundabout has been partially broken to create a temporary entrance and the corporation has installed a board announcing the work will be undertaken at the site.

Besides that, little else has been done so far.

According to the security guard at the site, a few labourers had arrived two months ago to install the board and a temporary boundary wall to mark off the area. Since then, no worker or MCD official has visited or done work at the site.

The agency, meanwhile, maintains that work is on track at the site and the parking lot will be developed before the 2010 Games. “Progress of work at the site is satisfactory and while we are not in the position to give a projected deadline yet, it will hopefully be done before the Games,” Subhash Arya, leader of the House at MCD, said.

The stack parking project will be spread over 3,200 square m, will have seven levels and will accommodate 834 cars and 300 scooters.

Once completed, the project will provide a much needed breather to the Kamla Nagar market, which currently has no parking arrangement and is regularly plagued with traffic jams, since most traders and shoppers leave their vehicles on the main road inside the market.

The project is being developed on a public private partnership basis by the MCD and a private firm called SMS Infrastructure Limited.

The civic body had had acknowledged the delay in getting work started earlier in 2007, saying the necessary environment clearances had taken up time. An MCD official, however, said the municipality had rushed the announcement of the project without getting even the basic paperwork done.

“There is a water and sewer line below the park in Kamla Nagar,” he said. “The MCD had to first take permission from the Delhi Jal Board to construct the parking lot. Clearance was also necessary from the DDA and all that took time.”

Indian Express 23.11.2009

Govt plans crackdown on plastic bag wholesalers

In an effort to step up the drive against the use of plastic bags in the Capital, the Delhi government is now considering a crackdown on wholesale traders who sell plastic bags.

Officials have reportedly been asked to carry out an intensive enforcement drive at the wholesale markets of plain plastic bags at Sadar Bazaar, Kharibauli and Khurshid Market.

“So far, the drive focussed on prosecuting the consumers of plastic bags. But for an effective implementation there is a need to curb the source. Hence, now we have asked the enforcing agencies to keep an eye on the shops selling plastic bags in the market areas,” an official said.

With complaints against Mother Dairy outlets violating the ban, the Food and Civil Supplies department has also been asked to enforce the ban.

The state government’s January notification reads: Use, storage and sale of plastic bags of any kind or thickness in all places where one gets the bags after shopping is banned.

Violators face a maximum penalty of Rs 1 lakh or five years imprisonment or both, says the Environment Protection Act.

So far, the government has registered cases against 50 people and one of them was penalised by the court recently.