Street parking in Mumbai is set to become almost 300% more expensive in the new year so that people choose parking lots instead
The New Year has brought some bad news for Mumbaikars. The BMC on Friday finally passed the new Pay and Park policy, which was held up for over a year after being passed at Improvement Committee in 2013, under which citizens will have to pay 300% more for parking their vehicles on the roads or at any of the civic authorities pay-and-park sites. The move is an attempt by the civic body to encourage people to use public parking lots.
The proceedings, however, saw huge opposition as the ruling party, both at Improvement Committee and at the General Body meeting, passed the policy without any changes or reduction of rate.
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The parking policy has mentioned that the new charges would lead to decongestion, especially in south Mumbai, as it will discourage too many vehicles plying on the roads.
According to the policy, four wheelers have to pay Rs 60 per hour, a three-fold hike compared to the current one.
The BMC has divided parking lots in three categories based on business, the average revenue it generates from a particular slot and timing of parking. The busiest slots are put together in ‘A’ category, while the lesser and least busy are divided in ‘B’ and ‘C’ categories.
So get ready to pay Rs 60 for an hour if you are parking your vehicle in areas like the Fort, Hutatma Chowk, Hornimon Circle, Bombay Hospital and such other busy areas, while areas like Regal Cinema, Police Gymkhana, Nepean Sea Road, parking charges for four wheelers would be Rs 40 per hour. The third category are for areas like Mahul Road in Chembur and Ghatkopar would have to pay Rs 20 per hour.
However, while passing the policy, Sunil Prabhu, Shiv Sena Corporator and MLA, who attended the General Body meeting on Friday, asked the administration to first implement the policy in one ward as a pilot project and then to implement it across all the wards. He was of the opinion that the policy’s flaws need to be worked on and then an improvement should be implemented across the city.
Prabhu said, “The suggestion was to have the policy implemented as a pilot project at one ward and check if it works fine and taking the suggestions of the citizens, the changes should be implemented and then policy be implemented across.”
The opposition boycotted the meeting after the ruling party passed the Pay and Park Policy. Devendra Amberkar, the Opposition leader of BMC, said, “These rates are very high and a common man cannot afford them and above all, the promise of providing new and better parking lots was not carried out but increase of charges was done.”
Official Speak
SVR Srinivas, the additional municipal corporation, said, "We would implement the pilot project in ‘A’ ward (Churchgate area) once we have the corporation resolution copy with us, which should not take more than a week and would implement in three months in the rest of the city."
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