NADEEM HASSAN / HT PHOTO Work on Nangloi-Najafgarh Road was completed six months back and now it will be dug up again by DJB .The main reason for the problems related to the Nangloi-Najafgarh Road is the lack of coordination between different government agencies and lack of planning as well. The public works department (PWD) was involved in giving a fresh concrete layer to the road in the last few years. But the work was hampered when the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) initiated a major rupees nine crore sewerline project for the villages lining the road. The residents of villages such as Baprola, Bakarwala and Nilothi had been demanding a sewerline for years.

“The current parkingrates are abysmally low. There will be a proposal to hike this. A basic rate will be proposed, which will then be debated in the House. A final decision will be taken after the issue is discussed at length,” a senior North Delhi Municipal Corporation official told Hindustan Times.

In March 2012, the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) had approved a hike in parking chargesfrom ` 10 per hour to ` 20 per hour for cars. Under the new guidelines, the parkingrates for the first 30 minutes for a four-wheeler was to be ` 10 followed by ` 20 for an hour and ` 50 for three hours.

Currently, Delhiites pay ` 10 for 10 hours and ` 20 for 24 hours in the municipal parkinglots across the city.

The recommendations for the hike in parkingrates, which were made by the Delhi government-appointed committee onparking, however, were not accepted by the political wing of the corporations for the fear of a adverse reaction from the people in the Assembly elections.

Even in last year’s budget, the south, north and east corporations had rejected a hike inparking chargesproposed by the commissioners of the civic bodies.

“The leaders had said that people won’t be able to afford highparking charges due to inflation. This time, too, it might happen again due to political considerations over the Lok Sabha polls in 2014. We propose, they dispose,” a senior South civic body official, who wished not to be named, said.

Source-http://www.hindustantimes.com

But today, calling one of the oldest and busiest business centres in the city Broadway is laughable as unauthorised parking has shrunk the road.

“It should be renamed narrow way,” remarked Joseph D’Silva, a member of the Broadway Shop Owners’ Association (BSOA) formed to find a solution to the commercial hub’s parking troubles.

Mr. D’Silva said two-wheelers parked in multiple rows on the left side of Broadway made life difficult for the public and traders alike. He said Broadway had become congested because employees of a shopping complex, sandwiched between Shanmugham Road and Broadway, parked their vehicles on the road.

“Employees of the shops in this trading complex have made Broadway the de facto parking space for their two-wheelers. This has cramped the 250-metre stretch of Broadway right from its entry point,” he said.

Complaint lodged

BSOA has lodged complaints with the City Police Commissioner and the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic, seeking a permanent solution to this problem.

P.A. Sageer, president, BSOA, warned that shop owners would be forced to resort to protests if authorities concerned failed to address the issue.

“The business in shops facing the illegal parking area has taken a severe beating. Our efforts to sort out the issue with owners of the shopping complex have proved futile,” he said.

K.S. Baby Vinod, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Traffic West, said the police regulated parking at Broadway this festive season by deploying additional men and conducting bike patrol.

“The idea is to continue the arrangement and restrict parking to just one row and that too where space is available. Declaring Broadway a no-parking zone is the possible permanent solution. But it draws opposition from a section of traders,” he said.

In fact, the Ernakulam Merchants Union, now rechristened Kerala Merchants Union, along with the City Corporation had made Broadway a no-parking area a few years back. But that experiment fizzled out.

Gopal Shenoy, general secretary, Kerala Merchants’ Union, said the experiment facilitated smooth progress of trade along Broadway. However, the adjoining Cloth Bazaar Road and Market Road became clogged with parked vehicles and a section of traders there suffered.

Later a section of traders in Broadway allowed customers to park their two-wheelers while making purchases, but this led to customers parking their vehicles and cramping the road.

Mr. Shenoy said the police seemed to be considering the possibility of bringing back a parking ban in Broadway.

“In that case, we will ask for a similar ban on Cloth Bazaar Road and Market Road to avoid a repeat of the past,” he said.

Kerala Merchants’ Union is all set to hold a meeting with the police and BSOA to find a permanent solution to the parking woes of Broadway.

Source-http://www.thehindu.com

A thinly populated neighbourhood with just two cars. That was Rajendra Nagar in the good old days, reminisces septuagenarian D N Narang, who has been living in the locality since 1954. Elsewhere in the capital, few cars would be parked on the roads; there was no need to.Today, at last count the number of four-wheelers in Delhi had crossed the 23-lakh mark with little space to park them and not even a semblance of a parking policy in sight. In Narang’s colony, there are at least three scraps a week over parking spaces; the locality’s serene aura now relegated to the deep recesses of his memory.

He recalls a time when not many people had cars. “We used to have single-storey houses that were actually bigger compared to today’s standards. In the entire neighbourhood, there were only two cars. Now, the colony has 500 plots on which there are 1,400 flats, each with at least two cars. People with bigger flats have three cars. Every other day, we intervene in fights over parking spaces,” Narang said.

SAME STORY

It’s the same story all over the city.

A few km away in Karol Bagh, enterprising residents have found a way to profit from the paucity of parking space in the city. Here, residents ‘rent’ out parking spots inside residential complexes to outsiders. “There’s a huge demand for parking spots in the area. Fights break out continuously over right of parking. In such a scenario, first we ensure that there is enough parking space for our own vehicles. And if there is space left to accommodate others’ cars, what’s the harm in letting it out?” asked Neeraj, a local resident who lives in one of the government flats in the area.

“Government residential complexes usually have a lot of space. So I let it out to people who need it, but to mostly those who live nearby or whom I know,” he added.

Neeraj claimed he does not charge money for letting others park their cars in his colony, but a lot of residents do. Like Manish Singh, another local resident, who even advertises the availability of parking space on a website. “Have a huge parking space in Karol Bagh area (near Khalsa College). Genuine people may contact after 6 pm on any day (sic),” reads one advertisement.

RENT A SPOT

The deal is simple. For a sum between Rs 3,000 and Rs 5,000, one can book a parking spot outside flats for a month by getting in touch with local residents. Some even ask for a two-month advance. “Almost everyone in the locality does it and claim to know the people to whom they let out the parking spots. But the truth is, not everybody is a known customer. In this locality of nine-10 houses, you’ll find 40 cars parked in the evening,” he claimed.

In residential areas, particularly those next to commercial hubs, the parking problem — and with it traffic congestion — intensifies. “My family lives in a three-storeyed house and we have six cars. People who come to the South Extension market park their cars in front of residents’ houses and go shopping for hours. Consequently, fights are common here,” Sudhir Handa of South Extension Part-II said.

NO CLEAR POLICY

Similarly, Hauz Khas village, on a typical weekend, turns into a nightmare for visitors and residents with cars parked cheek by jowl.

“During weekends, it’s wise to come down to the village before 8 pm. After that, it’s impossible to park here. Then, you usually park a kilometre or two away and walk till the village, or park outside the residential apartments. But that’s hardly safe or convenient. So, we strike a deal of sorts with the local security guard of a nearby apartment. We pay him Rs 100-200. For that sum, he not only parks your car within the apartment complex but also keeps an eye on it,” Debjit Mitra, who visits the village frequently, said.

On the road leading up to the village, such attendants are easy to spot. While some may offer their services only when asked, others are upfront. Though the Hauz Khas Welfare Association is not aware of the practice, they do admit that indiscriminate parking outside their homes, especially on weekends, has turned into a nuisance.

“The situation has gone out of control. People visiting restaurants in the village park their vehicles right outside our homes. Some even drink and create mischief. The problem has become so acute during weekends that we are even thinking of filing a petition in court,” S L Jain, chairman, Hauz Khaz, K & P blocks, said.

Without a clear parking policy on the part of the government, the problem has reached alarming proportions in the city.

http://www.indianexpress.com

Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director for research and advocacy of the Centre for Science and Environment, said a lot of factors needed to be considered before taking up any innovation. “There are several technologies available. The site and its approach play an important role in the usefulness of a parking innovation. The issue of lack of space is taken care of with this technology but it’s expensive,” Roychowdhury said.

The North Delhi Municipal Corporation has around 120 parking sites under its jurisdiction, of which 62 were tendered a few months back. A survey has been done for 100 other sites, of which 25 have been sent for traffic clearance. It also has four multi-level parking sites.

http://paper.hindustantimes.com