Soon, you may not to be able to buy new car or bike in Maharashtra if you don't meet this criteria

In a bid to reduce vehicular population in India's richest state, Maharashtra Transport commissioner Vivek Bhimanwar has announced that his department was mulling a policy in 100 days to make it compulsory for all car and bike buyers in Maharashtra to have 'mandatory certified parking area' in the absence of which new vehicle registrations could be rejected.

"We are in consultation with stakeholders, including police and govt authorities, and only after seeking public opinion, we will submit a proposal to the cabinet for a comprehensive policy to make parking compulsory for all new vehicle owners. If there is no check on vehicle growth in Maharashtra, there is a projection of 6.8 crore vehicles choking the roads by 2030, up from the present 3.8 crore vehicle population, he said. The state had registered 29 lakh vehicles in 2024," he said. "Even if you have many flyovers or coastal roads, there needs to be a policy to control vehicle population," reported ToI quoting Bhimanwar.

Congestion fees:

Additionally, the department is planning to bring a hybrid model of parking space into place where congestion fees for vehicles to enter commercial hubs in urban areas like Mumbai will be taken he said. Such congestion fees are charged in London and New York to restrict vehicular movement in busy hubs.


This forms part of the 100-day plan by the transport department, he said. A few other major initiatives during the 100-day program will be introducing an aggregator cab policy, reviewing the Electric Vehicle policy, and abolishing border check posts. which has been a long pending demand from transporters due to corruption.

"In 100 days, we also plan to introduce more faceless services at RTO -- taking it to 54 faceless services. So far, 42 faceless services at 55 RTOs across the state have reduced footfall of 38 lakh citizens who didn't have to visit RTOs in 2024," he told ToI.