As traffic chokes Capital, Delhi seeks to regulate parking to boxes
Motorists beware. As you can no longer haphazardly park vehicles in the national Capital while visiting busy places like markets, metro stations etc as you will have to park your cars in earmarked Box. Box parking refers to the designated space, marked by lines (a rectangular box), for any vehicle.
To begin with the Delhi Traffic police has identified and operationalised box parking on the roadside at 56 locations across the Capital. The move comes in the wake of a flurry of complaints received by it regarding massive traffic jams in these areas, primarily due to haphazard parking in these marketplaces.
Subsequently, the Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena directed Delhi Police to identify the problem areas and accordingly, create sufficient parking spaces to address the parking woes that further led to traffic snarls.
According to Lok Niwas officials, these 56 locations are expected to accommodate 3000 vehicles in high footfall areas like Chandni Chowk, Kamla Nagar Market, Vikas Marg, Netaji Subhash Place, Gandhi Nagar, Pusta Road, Rohini, Malviya Nagar, Dwarka and Yusuf Sarai, among others.
Notably, at more than 1.5 crore, the number of registered vehicles in Delhi matches the combined total of registered vehicles in the three metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. The national Capital’s growing parking crisis has turned the city’s streets into daily battlegrounds, where drivers engage in a relentless struggle for scarce parking spaces.
From residential areas to bustling markets, the lack of space has led to honking, tempers flaring, and fuel being wasted as vehicles circle the blocks in search of vacant spots. This problem of congestion gets aggravated in the national capital as lakhs of vehicles enter Delhi every day from neighbouring cities in the National Capital Region (NCR).
According to a statement issued by LG Secretariat, Box parking on the roads would also help reduce vehicular pollution and manage smooth Traffic flow on these stretches. Total capacity of these box parking will be 2984.
Out of the 56 identified locations, marking of boxes on 50 locations has been completed by the Delhi Police using their own resources. Out of these identified roads, 46 pertain to the Public Works Department (PWD), four to Delhi Development Authority (DDA), three to Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and three to other agencies.
Out of these 56 locations, 14 locations are identified in the East District, 11 in the Northern District, 10 in the South District, 09 in the Central District, and 06 each in the Western and New Delhi Districts. These locations include Vikas Marg, Mayur Vihar Phase-II, Wazirabad Road, Ansari Road, Gandhi Nagar Pusta Road, Chandni Chowk Market (Fatehpuri Masjid to Sadar Thana), Kailash Colony, Kamla Nagar market, NSP to Madhuban Chowk, Libaspur to Mukarba Chowk, East Rohini to West Rohini Metro Station, Sec 4 Dwarka to Sec 12 Dwarka, Loha Mandi T-point, Malviya Nagar, Najafgarh Road, Yusuf Sarai, Okhla, etc.
“Marked parking boxes on roads helps in Organised Parking, Better Traffic Flow, Optimum Use of Space, Safety Improvement, ease of Enforcement, Guidance to Drivers, Emergency Access for ambulances, fire engines, and police vehicles, Urban Aesthetics and overall help to reduce Pollution,” said the Delhi government’s official. The Delhi parking policy, available on the Delhi transport department’s website, aimed to regularise parking in residential and market areas, and recommended, among other things, dynamic pricing for parking in peak and non-peak hours.
Among its core components was the drafting of a Parking Management Area Plan (PMAP) by urban local bodies that was to be based on an area-wise survey to identify parking requirements. The parking policy noted that parking plans “shall be prepared within four months” of its notification.
