Purchasing a vehicle may become a Herculean task soon if you are not able to furnish proof of legal parking space. The proposal, a highly impractical one given the ground reality of Indian cities, could trigger a massive controversy and trigger protest from stakeholders, said experts.
As traffic situation and parking problem worsening day after day, the Government is mulling to allow registration of vehicles only after the buyer produces evidence of parking space. The move, authorities hope, would decongest traffic in cities. However, the decision could be highly impractical given the fact that even in most colonies in a city like Delhi residents don’t have designated parking spaces. Forget about those who make use of empty spaces in unorgansiased clusters to park their vehicles.
Insisting that he was “very keen” to put in place such riders for vehicles’ registration, Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said his Ministry is in discussions with the Road Transport Ministry in this regard. “I am holding discussion with Nitin Gadkari and also sensitising the States. We are moving in that direction (to get such a mechanism implemented),” he said.
The civic administrations across Indian cities have failed to provide adequate parking spaces, leading to several cars being parked on roads, causing traffic snarl while leaving pedestrians at the receiving end.
Concerned at the rising traffic in the cities, particularly metros like Delhi, the Government has been taking various steps to curb private vehicle usage. Some of these cities are implementing Bus Rapid Transit System, building multi-level parking lots, doling out funds to States to purchase public transport and increasing tax on new vehicles.
For Delhi, a Central panel set up by the Government had recommended increasing parking fees to discourage use of private vehicles, imposing congestion tax and steep hike in penalty for parking violations by 10 times the normal rates.
“Several cities in the world have changed their parking policy to decongest them. In fact, some Indian cities like Jaipur and Gangtok have taken measures to cap the number of vehicles in the city by asking people to furnish proof of legal parking space,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director, advocacy and research, Centre for Science and Environment.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) had first conceptualised the idea by which a resident could buy a four wheeler (car/SUV) only after obtaining a parking clearance from the local municipality. The decision was considered during the tenure of Delhi Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta when the demolition drive was at peak in the national Capital.
“In future, it would be mandated (that) no permission would be given to any construction without a toilet...No car or vehicle should be registered without adequate parking space availability certificate,” Union Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu said on Thursday.
