Indian Express 17.02.2010
Work begins on 3-level parking lot at Parade Ground
Express News Service Tags : 3-level parking, delhi Posted: Wednesday, Feb 17, 2010 at 0057 hrs
New Delhi: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has finally kick-started work on the multi-level parking lot at the Parade Ground in the Walled City. Once completed, the Rs 20-crore underground parking would help ease traffic woes in the area.
Officials said the three-level parking lot can accommodate nearly 700 vehicles. The park on top of the lot would be restored after the work is complete, they added.
“The construction work will be executed on a build-operate-transfer (BOT) basis and the maintenance cost will be recovered from parking and conversion charges,” a senior MCD official said.
The civic agency had zeroed in on the Parade Ground after the proposal to build an underground multi-level parking facility at Shaheed Park hit a roadblock. The Archaeological Survey of India had denied permission to the civic body for the project on the ground that it was within 100 metres of two protected monuments, Khooni Darwaza and the Ferozeshah Kotla ruins
In January, the new spot at the Parade Ground, too, had run into trouble after the Shri Dharmik Ramlila Committee, which organises Ramlila at the grounds every year, wrote to the civic body protesting the move. The committee said the parking lot will disrupt the Ramlila functions.
The matter was resolved after the civic agency convinced the committee that the underground parking lot will not disrupt any kind of activity at the ground level. MCD officials said once complete, the parking lot will help decongest roads and increase walking space for pedestrians.
The MCD also plans to construct two more multi-level parking lots in the ares — at Gandhi Ground and Dangal Ground.
