Working for the past five and a half years, 45-year-old Vikram, one of the 28 guards, posted at the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) parking lot is unaware of the pressure he is likely to face in the coming days.
The NDMC’s implementation of restriction on cars inside the Inner Circle of the Connaught Place (CP) would increase the pressure on the parking spaces excessively. According to the plan implemented by the NDMC, three parking complexes including the one at Palika Bazaar, Shivaji Stadium and Baba Kharak Singh Marg would be the only parking lots in the sprawling heart of the city.
“Despite a limited work shift, we are plagued with excessive parking. With the implementation of the car restriction in Inner and Middle Circle, the pressure of handling car parking will increase multiple folds. The situation will be more severe during the weekends,” Vikram told The Pioneer.
While some talked about the increasing vehicular influx in these parking lots and its consequential pressure on them, some of the guards stationed at the booths expressed worry over the ignorance about the impact of the car bandi in the financial hub of the national Capital.
Supervisor Shiv Kumar Yadav of the Palika parking lot said: “We work in an eight hour shift. Out of a total of 28 guards, four guards are posted at the entry and four guards are posted at the exit gate respectively while others including four female guards who man the parking area complex.”
The three-floor parking complex at the Palika Bazaar handles nearly 900 vehicles including two wheelers at any time of the day. Out of the 900 vehicles, 60 per cent vehicles belong to the shop owners inside the Palika Bazar. The rest belong to people who commute to offices located in the Inner Circle while the 20 per cent vehicles belong to the shoppers, who come from different parts of Delhi-NCR.
The parking lots under one of the plans of the Smart City Project would not be flooded but choked with the extra traffic if the no car policy would be implemented in the Inner and Middle Circle of the Connaught Place.
On the ground floor of the Palika parking, the space is allotted for women and the differently-abled. Pointing at this particular space of the parking area, one of the guards said, “Out of the 900 vehicles parked here, 50 belong to women and the handicapped. Due to the footfall this space too will be loaded with more vehicles.”
“Just like the soldiers at the border, we don’t get an off. So for us, there will not be much of a difference in handling the inflow,” added Yadav.
“This is the only parking space in CP, which charges an affordable price for parking.
For the first four hours of parking, a vehicle owner shells out Rs10. After which, the vehicle owner pays Rs5 per hour,” said a guard at the Palika Bazaar parking lot on request of anonymity.
Surprisingly, the guards said that some people leave their cars for months altogether at the parking and pay in bulk.
“Many people who travel to foreign countries park their cars here for as many as 15 days. As far as I can recall, there was a man who parked his car here for a month and he paid Rs34,000,” he said.
Clueless about the coming days, Yadav said the onus lies on the higher authorities finally.
“We work for the higher authorities, what will happen… how parking will be managed… It is the headache of the top bosses. We are just foot soldiers,” he added.
Meters away from the Palika parking lot, two other parking lots dot the landscape of the ever-bustling Connaught Place-Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Shivaji Stadium.
Unaware about the consequences of the pressure of the vehicles which will be mandated to be parked at Baba Kharak Singh Marg, a 35-year-old guard Naresh Kumar said, “I don’t know how we will manage the parking. The peak hours are morning and late evening that too during the weekends. The pressure is not much on regular days.”
The third parking lot, Shivaji Stadium, close to the lady Hardinge Hospital, has a strength of nearly 36 guards. One of the guards, Ghanshyam lal said, “We have not got any order from our bosses. As and when we will get an order, we will decide on how to handle the parking space problems. The pressure is higher here in terms of the people who visit the hospital and park their cars.”
Apart from these three parking lots, there are six parking spaces earmarked in the inner circle.
Talking to The Pioneer, one of the staffers stationed at the booths feigned ignorance about the implementation of the no car policy in the inner circle.
Yogesh, a 28-year-old said, “I have not been informed about this development (of no car policy in inner and middle circle in CP). If that is the case, I am scared I will lose my job.”
According to a senior Delhi Traffic Police official, the CP witnesses heavy traffic of up to an average of 5,000 vehicles, in the inner as well as outer circle. Requesting anonymity, the officer said, “So far, the plan has not been shared with the Delhi Traffic Police. However, on any given point of time, a minimum of 4,000-5,000 vehicles pass through the inner and outer circle.