NDMC hits hurdle in plan to hand Sadar Bazar parking lot to railways

NEW DELHI: A proposed move by the North corporation to hand over to the railways a municipal parking space in the Sadar Bazar area here has met with opposition within the standing committee of the civic body.

"I will not allow this to happen and sit on a dharna at the head office of the civic body if the only parking area in one of the busiest commercial centres of the city is handed over to Railways," said the deputy chairman of NDMC's standing committee, Virender Babbar.

The 6,200 sq.m parking area, near Qutub Road, is presently used by traders and customers for parking their vehicles.

The space is to be handed over to railways in exchange of land which North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) wants to acquire from the public transporter for construction of a road girder on Rani Laxmi Bai Road, a senior municipal corporation officer said.

"Following the January 1996 bomb blast on Qutub Road, this parking space was opened during the tenure of former chief minister the late Sahib Singh Verma to ward off incidents like bomb blasts due to haphazardly parked vehicles in Sadar Bazar," Babbar said.

Thousands of traders and customers visit Sadar Bazar on a daily basis and nearly a thousand vehicles use the parking lot, he said. The issue was raised in the previous meeting of Standing Committee.

The chairman of the committee, Mohan Bhardwaj, has directed the NDMC Commissioner to look into the matter and ensure that the parking land was not handed over to Railways unless alternative arrangements were in place.

The Standing Committee suggested that railways be paid for its land or that it be asked to accept the plot without changing its use as a parking area, Babbar said.