Mumbai : After the state government brought about an interim stay on the implementation of the resident parking permit system in ‘A’ ward recently, it has now come to light that the rest of the city will still have to pay higher rates for street parking. Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas told FPJ on Saturday that the BMC plans to go ahead with most clauses of the policy for the rest of city, except that of the permits.
The new parking policy, which aims to encourage the use of public parking lots and public transport, was initially proposed in December 2013 when it was approved by the civic Improvements Committee. It got the final nod from the civic general assembly earlier this month.
According to the new policy, which comes into effect in the near future, the city has been divided into three business areas — A, B and C. The more congested areas such as Colaba, Fort and Nariman Point fall in ‘A’ category, where the charge for street parking is the highest at Rs 60 per hour. The parking fee in ‘B’ category areas, which include Prabhadevi, Siddhivinayak and Matunga, would be Rs 40 per hour; in category ‘C,’ which includes Chembur and Malabar Hill, motorists will have to pay Rs 20 per hour. This policy is a complete departure from the blanket fee of Rs 15 per hour that the civic body has been charging all these years.
While these are rates for parking during the day time, a separate system was brought in for night parking. Called the resident parking permit system, which was to be started in ‘A’ ward on a trial basis, this system meant that parking lots on the street would be reserved for cars only from the adjoining buildings once they get a permit for Rs 1800 per month. However, this pilot project saw much criticism from local residents’ associations, after which the state government had to bring about an interim stay on it and a hearing is expected soon.
[alert type=”e.g. warning, danger, success, info” title=””]While there is a stay on resident parking permit system for ‘A’ ward, that is South Mumbai, the rest of the city will still have to pay higher rates for street parking[/alert]
However, the stay is only on the pilot project in A ward. “The BMC plans to go ahead with the policy in the rest of the wards since it has a lot of important clauses such as high rates for parking nearby schools or a 50 per cent concession in street parking for autos and a 30 per cent concession in parking fees for taxis and public buses,” Srinivas said. This means that people who have to park their vehicles in ‘B’ and ‘C’ category areas will have to shell out more than Rs 15 per hour in the day for street parking in the near future. However, Srinivas did not specify when the policy will come into effect or of the future of night parking in these wards.
But activists seem to have welcomed this move. “The policy is important for improving the city’s public transport. After all, roads are public spaces. If we come down so heavily on hawkers, why not on errant vehicles? Besides, if errant parking is removed, public buses will move much faster, increasing their efficiency and availability,” said transport expert Ashok Datar.
