Mumbai: BMC to ease parking pain

People will either have to park in the public parking lots or in pay-and-park slots marked for the purpose. Representation pic

In a surprisingly thoughtful gesture, the civic body has decided to levy just the basic parking charges initially in order to ease people into its ambitious on-street parking plan on two stretches of road and three areas in the city and suburbs. Senior civic officials said the announcement for the implementation of the plan is likely to be made next week.

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MID-day had reported on the on-street parking plan on August 7 and 17. The plan proposed by the Mumbai Parking Authority includes two stretches of arterial roads and three areas on a pilot basis in the city and suburbs. Once implemented, people will no longer be able to park for free on these arterial roads and will either have to park in the public parking lots or in pay-and-park slots that will be marked on the roads.

Three categories

The parking policy lists three categories - A for highly commercial areas, B for commercial as well as residential, and C for completely residential areas. The charges are the highest for commercial areas and lowest for residential areas. Initially, the charges levied will only be from the C category even in commercial areas. "We want to give people time to adjust to the new system. But we cannot allow them to park for free either which is why we will charge them nominal rates in the beginning," said a civic official.

The plan proposed by the Mumbai Parking Authority includes two stretches of arterial roads and three areas on a pilot basis in the city and suburbs. Representation pic

Under the C category, owners of four-wheelers will have to pay Rs 25 for upto one hour and the charges will increase depending on the number of hours. Similarly, owners of two-wheelers will have to pay R10 for an hour. People will also have the option of purchasing monthly passes to park both kinds of vehicles between 8 am and 8 pm.

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Civic officials said that since the tendering process will take time, they are appointing contractors who are already managing other public parking lots in the city. "We have picked experienced contractors to manage the parking slots that will be marked on the streets. We will conduct the tendering process next month after which new contractors will be appointed and the parking charges will later be adjusted based on the land use as per the parking policy," said a senior civic official.

The areas

The two arterial roads include a 3.5-km-long stretch of Maharshi Karve Road from Churchgate Station to the Opera House junction and a 5.7-km-long stretch of SV Road in K West ward from Juhu Airport to the Oshiwara river. The areas where the on-street parking will be introduced on a pilot basis include an area measuring 1.53 sq km around a stretch of Gokhale Road in Shivaji Park, an area measuring 1.53 sq km around New Link Road in Oshiwara and an area measuring 1.3 sq km around LBS Road in Mulund.

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Rs 25
Charges for cars in the C category for an hour

Rs 10
Charges for bikes in the C category for an hour

Rs 35
Two-wheeler charge for over 12hrs

Rs 80
Four-wheeler charge for over 12hrs

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