Last week, media reports talked about the new plans proposed by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to build an underground parking lot at Raosaheb Patwardhan Garden, Linking Road, Bandra. The project is expected to cost Rs 88 crore. It may be recalled that similar proposals have been made earlier for underground parks at the Oval, Churchgate, and Azad Maidan, near CST station.
The proposal is absurd (see chart), costs huge sums of money and will involve more inconvenience to nearby residence than that faced by the current metro rail construction work. The latter has been planned very carefully. But going by the track record of the municipal corporation relating to any project it has undertaken, work will be haphazard in nature. Time and cost overruns will take place. Construction will be shoddy. And the project could become a white elephant.
These parking lots will be used as infrequently as many of the skywalks and subways near stations and highways. And they will seek to address the parking problem in just one area. Mumbai needs a solution for the entire city, not just for one area. And it needs a solution which can be replicated, is reasonable in terms of tariffs and does not require any further bailouts from the municipal or state coffers.
This author had made such a proposal in December 2014 (http:// www.asiaconverge.com/2014/12/decongesting-cities-coping-with-illegal-parking-vending/). The latest revised proposal was in December 2017 (http://www.asiaconverge.com /2017/12/solution-indias-parking-hawker-problem-kills-graft-rewards-investors-unclutters-roads/).
Both proposals talked about the need for the MCGM to introduce a policy:
That would allow motorists to do their shopping and entertaining (vegetables, restaurants etc) and then move down to their vehicles or to the taxi stands. It would decongest the roads of stalls, hawkers and parked vehicles. It would rid the city of self-styled parking attendants collecting unaccountable money from motorists, and depriving the government of taxable revenues.
But the MCGM does not like such ideas. Probably, it prefers ideas which allow the system of non-transparency, big cuts on project costs, graft to flourish. Is this why MCGM has come up with a project where construction costs will be at least 30 times more per sq ft? It will not decongest Mumbai, and might need annual bailouts from either the MCGM or the state government.
This new proposal promotes misgovernance. It does not take an Einstein to realise that any project that goes underground is bound to cost more than a project that is built on the ground. And excuses like Mumbai has no space for development are absurd. If the right FSI benefits are given, and speedy clearances are obtained, a lot more of construction activity can take place.
Such a policy would give a shot in the arm to the ailing construction sector which not only provides money to the exchequer, but also provides employment to countless millions.
RN Bhaskar is consulting editor with FPJ.
