BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), on Thursday, said that decentralised comprehensive ward parking management is set to take off in D ward (Malabar Hills, Breach Candy and Nepean Sea Road), K West (Andheri (West), Juhu and Versova) and S ward (Powai and Bhandup) on a pilot basis.
The decision was taken following a meeting of senior civic officials and a team formulating the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA) project, under the supervision of P Velarasu, additional municipal commissioner (projects). This pilot project is a part of BMC's ambitious plan for comprehensive parking management. The decentralised parking model will optimise available parking space in different wards. An application programme interface (API) will be created to strategically assign parking spaces to Mumbaikars. Three agencies have already been appointed on a pro-bono basis to develop the API.
The ward office and traffic police department will work jointly to implement this project. "These three wards have a significant number of residents that use their own private vehicle. It will give us a clear understanding of the process during the pilot stage," said a senior civic official. "Wards like KW have a high population density, which will also help us identify an overall model for Mumbai," the official added.
BMC is also working towards building a legal framework to set up MPA. Mumbai will be the first Indian city to have a single authority responsible for parking. The present parking policy is being evaluated and a pricing policy is being fixed.
