Mumbai: BMC’s 2019 Feasibility Report Contradicts Multi-Storeyed Parking Tower Plans Outside Matunga Railway Station, Activists Raise Questions

After waiting for two months, the citizen activists from Matunga have finally received a response from BMC for their RTI seeking a feasibility report for the car parking outside Matunga Central Railway station. To their astonishment, the 2019 feasibility report mentions BMC's plan to construct an underground parking facility near the railway station to regulate the haphazard parking in the area, and there is no mention of any ‘multi-storeyed robotic parking tower’. After accessing the report, the activists have further raised questions on the offline sanction of the Rs 126 crore Matunga Parking Tower project.

“If the BMC had planned to construct underground parking, how did the project convert into two structures of multi-storeyed parking towers? This further emphasizes that the BMC has no feasibility report for the parking towers project outside Matunga Central Railway Station, for which a work order was given without mandatory NOCs, including that of the Fire Brigade,” said activist Chetan Trivedi, who had filed the RTI.

The Free Press Journal had reported on January 2nd that the citizen activists protesting against the 23-storeyed robotic parking tower outside Matunga Central railway station were still awaiting a response to their RTIs. The citizens are protesting against the parking towers, calling it a safety hazard.

The feasibility study, Trivedi received under RTI mentions BMC's plan to start on-street paid parking and the construction of an underground parking facility right in front of Matunga Central Railway station, to regulate the haphazard parking on around 16700 sq mt of road space in the area. The report also mentions the necessity of declaring a 500-meter area around the underground parking facility as a NO Parking zone.