BMC to encourage public parking in private spaces

Mumbai, May 5 (UNI) The civic administration in the Metropolis is planning to deal with the problem of traffic jams by encouraging private developers to build parking lots on the land being developed by them.

Parking space is a vital issue in a city like Mumbai and the current 'pay and park' arrangements on roads seem to be causing traffic jams by rendering portions of roads unavailable for the traffic, say civic sources.

As per the scheme, the developers building public parking facilities on their land would be offered alternate FSI equal to 50 per cent of the total area of the parking lot, on a land that is not reserved for any public purpose.

A proposal to this effect is awaiting the approval of the Improvements Committee. The administration may formulate a relevant policy after the approval of the committee. The new development control plan has 150 reservations for parking lots. The total area of these parking lots measures to approximately 4 lakh square feet.

The development permissions have been granted to about 20 such plots.

As per the Development Control rules of 1991, two types of parking lots are being built in the city. The first category is the closed parking lots constructed on a land that is being newly developed as per the DC rule 36 and the second category is the parking lots developed on the land reserved for a parking lot as per the DC rule no.9 of schedule 4.

Even though, the administration is encouraging the building of parking lots on the private land, the policy will be implemented selectively. Building public parking facility on the private land will be allowed only on the locations selected by the municipal commissioner. The Municipal commissioner will select these locations in coordination with the traffic department and other concerned authorities. Roads with heavy traffic in need of a parking space would be preferred for this arrangement. Developers who are engaged in development work in the nearby areas would be expected to come forward to build parking spaces through this arrangement.

Parking spaces built under this arrangement would be expected to accommodate not less than 50 vehicles with a location either in a basement or on the ground floor or upper floors with an access through ramps. Whether the increasing pressure on the existing parking facilities in the city would ease, depends on the response from private developers to this proposal.

UNI