With residents of old buildings finding it increasingly difficult to get parking space, the BMC is planning to offer them safe paid on-street parking facilities which will be monitored by CCTV. The civic body has proposed to start a pilot project in D (Pedder road, Nepeansea road), G South (Worli), K west - (Andheri West) and S (Powai-Bhandup).
Though the BMC runs 29 public parking lots (PPL) across the city, many still prefer to park along the streets often leading to traffic congestion. So the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA), formed under the Civic Road and Traffic Department has prepared a ward-wise parking management plan and will implement the project.
"For the first time, keeping a holistic approach we have identified four wards for a pilot project, two in the city and one in the eastern and the western suburbs each. Our goal is easy movement of vehicles, to allow street parking we have taken the No-objection certificate of the Traffic department," said a senior urban planner working on it.
The authority has studied the demand and supply of parking in the wards where the scheme will be implemented. On-street parking is proposed on the basis of land use and road characteristics. "Narrow roads won't have such facilities while the residential areas, especially old buildings in the city which do not have space inside their buildings or society premises can go for paid on-street parking," said the senior official.
However, this project is yet to be implemented since the central database and introduction of mobile applications, pricing policy is yet to be approved. Till then, if it is implemented the BMC will follow the pricing of an existing policy, said the official.
According to the sources, D ward Nepeansea Road from August Kranti Marg to LD Ruparel Marg and Ridge Road from Hanging Garden to Kemps Corner, around 50 roads in K (west) - Andheri (west) will be selected for the scheme such as Lokhandwala complex and Oshiwara Park Road.
Similarly, around 35 roads in G south Worli and Powai-Bhandup area will have the facility. The residents will have to book their slots (two slots of 12 hours each) in advance and pay a monthly or annual fee.
"The city has 36 lakhs of cars registered till last year. We will never be able to bridge the gap," the urban planner rued.
Dhaval Shah from Andheri Lokhandwala Oshiwara Citizen's Association ( LOCA) said, "Many societies don't have ample parking space so the residents have to park their vehicles on the road. If the BMC has to implement the scheme they should invite a registered resident association before finalising the scheme and should also have subsidised rates for residential parking."
