13 lakh challans for illegal parking; LG pushes for unified authority
The Delhi Traffic Police has so far issued over 13 lakh challans and 5.54 lakh notices for unauthorised parking in the national capital, with Lt Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Thursday directing agencies to intensify action through joint enforcement to check illegal parking.
Chairing a high-level meeting to review chronic parking issues in the city, Sandhu directed officials to explore if adoption of FASTag and app-based real-time slot tracking, along with automated sensor ticketing, could be mandated to minimise manual intervention.
In the meeting, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) presented a district-wise enforcement plan from October 15 to December 15, covering identified parking hotspots and market corridors, to be carried out with the Traffic Police.
The Delhi Traffic Police presented that till October 5 this year, 13,34,700 challans and 5,54,073 notices were issued for unauthorised parking and 1,24,906 vehicles were towed, with 76 cranes deployed.
Heads of stakeholder agencies including the Traffic Police, MCD, New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) among others discussed the national capital’s persistent parking issues and mobility bottlenecks in the meeting chaired by the LG, said a Lok Niwas note.
Sandhu directed officials to examine the possibility of providing dedicated EV charging points at all existing and newly proposed public parking sites.
The proposed integration of all MCD- and NDMC-managed parking on the Park+ app, with live display of vacant and occupied slots and data sharing with Google Maps and MapmyIndia, was also discussed.
He emphasised that the residents of the national capital required ample parking facilities beyond what existed today, and directed the officials to work in a coordinated manner and develop new parking spaces and infrastructure.
After assessing existing surface and multi-level parking facility sites and spaces and their under-utilisation in many cases, the LG directed the MCD, NDMC and the Traffic Police to plan joint enforcement exercises against illegal parking at such sites and locations.
He pressed for uniform parking charges across all agencies, namely the MCD, NDMC, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the DMRC. The existing rules and process for deciding parking charges, which differ across agencies, were placed before the meeting, it said.
The MCD’s base rate for cars is Rs 20 per hour, the NDMC’s on-street rate is Rs 50 per hour and the DMRC charges Rs 30 for up to six hours.
The LG called for an early decision on the creation of a unified parking authority for Delhi and directed the MCD, NDMC, DDA and the Delhi Police to prepare the framework for the authority, Lok Niwas said.
Involving RWAs and market associations for better enforcement outside multi-level parking facilities, to prevent unauthorised parking, the MCD, NDMC and the DDA were instructed to ensure that all existing parking sites are utilised fully and their utilisation is increased.
The MCD, DDA and the Traffic Police will also jointly plan area-wise parking requirements and execute them using new technologies.
The MCD has 463 parking sites (433 surface and 30 multi-level or stack parking) with a capacity of 94,831 equivalent car spaces.
It has identified 79 new sites, which will take the total to 542 by December this year and has 14 multi-level and stack parking proposals with a capacity of 6,052 equivalent car spaces under consideration, the note said.
The NDMC has 126 existing parking sites and is planning to bring parking sites in its area under an intelligent, integrated parking system shortly. Lok Niwas said that the DMRC will scale up its Park-and-Ride facilities across Metro stations.
The DMRC currently has such facilities at 127 of its 242 Metro stations across Delhi-NCR, with a total capacity of 1,34,985 vehicles. This comprises 14,426 four-wheelers, 1,09,250 two-wheelers and 11,309 cycles.
Ten of these are multi-level car parking. Of the 127 sites, 65 are smart parking sites, of which 52 are integrated with the DMRC app, and the remaining sites are planned to be converted in a phased manner, it added.
