In a tiny relief to the city's gigantic parking problem, motorists will now be able to park their vehicles at eight malls, which will open up their parking lots for private vehicles but at a fixed per night or monthly charge. This has opened up a space for parking atleast 6500 vehicles and these parking lots will be open for private parking only during the nighttime between 11 pm to 8 am.
The eight malls that have been identified by the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA) include Growels 101 (Kandivali), Infinity mall (Malad west) Infinity Mall (Andheri West), Inorbit mall (Malad west), Pheonix Market city (Kurla West), R City Mall (Ghatkopar), R mall (Mulund West), Pheonix Palladium Mall (Lower Parel).
Getting a parking place is the biggest task for vehicle owners in the City. Due to the lack of parking space in the residential premises, many people end up parking their four and two-wheeled vehicles on the side of the roads. Which, eventually leads to congestion and bottlenecks on the road. These parking spaces authorities claim will act as a relief to all those people who do not have a parking space.
The decision to approach the malls was taken by the BMC in 2019, during a meeting with the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA), whose mandate is to decongest the city’s streets. Opening malls for private parking is one of the measures to create a city parking pool, said a BMC official.
MPA in its survey found that from Monday to Thursday, the number of vehicles parked in the malls is lower as compared to the weekends and at night time. Also, necessary safety equipment and surveillance measures like CCTV are there 24x7 at the mall parking lots. Apart from malls, the MPA is also identifying residential complexes, warehouses and garages that can be used for parking as a pilot project for the city parking pool. These spaces are being identified to complement the Public Parking Lots (PPLs), Amenity plots, Reserved Plots and BEST depots. The exact space available across these malls that can be utilised for parking will be mapped by MPA officials.
This will be particularly beneficial for overcrowded residential colonies where the car parking is spilling on streets where adequate parking is not available within their premises. The malls will also be open to accommodating Ola/ Uber fleet owners for this facility. Confirming the development Mukesh Kumar, CEO of Infiniti Malls said, "keeping in mind the parking problem in the city we will be allowing our parking space in the night (between 11 pm to 9 am ) as a facility to vehicle owners by paying a monthly charge of just Rs 2500.
What is the city parking pool?
City Parking Pool (CPP) is an initiative of the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA). It conceptualises a situation in which all agencies and stakeholders that have parking join hands to create a common pool of parking without losing ownership, revenue and overall control on their property. All levels of government, offices, malls, other commercial hubs, residential societies and any other entities are envisaged as key stakeholders in the CPP. This enables the citizens of Mumbai to access a large body of parking and book parking slots in advance electronically and on payment. The sharing stakeholders of the City Parking Pool (CPP) contribute to enhancing city mobility by optimising off-street parking. They do so by opening their existing parking areas in their desired time slots for the public, thereby reducing the pressure on on-street parking. However, all privately/officially owned parking slots, either designated or declared free parking slots, will not form part of the CPP.
1) Growels mall Kandivali east 650 parking places at Rs.300 per night per vehicle.
2) Infinity mall Andheri west 324 parking places at Rs.2500 per month.
3) Infinity mall Malad west 847 parking places at Rs.2500 per month.
4) Inorbit mall, Malad west 769 parking places at Rs.2500 per month
5) Pheonix mall Kurla would charge Rs.950 per week for 12 hours night
6) R City Ghatkopar west 1860 parking places at 3500 per month
7) R.mall Mulund west 400 parking vehicles at Rs.500 for a night
8) Phonix Palladium 1100 parking place iat 3500 per month night parking.
