Parking even in front of your home may no longer be free

There will be no free parking on any public road in the city, not even outside one’s own house, if the new parking policy, drafted by the Urban Development Department, comes into force.

The new policy, expected to come into effect in a month’s time, is aimed at bringing a sweeping change in the way vehicle owners look at parking on public roads. This has been one of the recommendations mobility experts have been making to keep private vehicles off the road.

“Road space is at a premium and so are footpaths. It has to be used for mobility and not for parking. We are working on a plan to regulate parking in the city,” Mahendra Jain, additional chief secretary at UDD, told ET.


The policy proposes regulation of on-street parking along high-density corridors, Central Business District (CBD) roads and near multi-level parking centres. It also imposes restrictions on on-street parking in residential areas by levying a charge. In places where parking is allowed, users will have to pay.

Jain said the money mobilised from parking fees will be used to improve road safety, facilities for pedestrians, development of parking spaces, etc. “We are also hoping that this will ease congestion in a significant manner,” he said.

WHAT THE POLICY SAYS
The BBMP has been tasked with the responsibility of preparing and implementing local area specific/integrated parking plans as envisaged in the Revised Master Plan (RMP) 2015. The civic body will have to constitute a task force — headed by the zonal commissioners of BBMP — to prepare parking plans for all areas in their respective jurisdictions.

The parking plan, the policy said, will be prepared in a phased manner. First, all arterial roads, commercial areas and major roads with heavy traffic flow will be covered in four months of notification of the rules. “Based on the learning and experience from Phase I, the next phase of the parking plan for other roads will be taken up,” it stated.

“Pedestrians, mass public transit modes (buses and Metro), emergency vehicles, cycles and differently abled access and parking facilities will get top priority in the area parking plans,” the policy said.