Junk vehicles parked across the Capital will soon be liable to being scrapped for good with the Transport Department working on a junking policy to free up space to address its perennial parking woes.
Vehicles over 10 yrs old
According to government sources, the move is in line with the soon-to-be-notified comprehensive parking policy, the Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Rules 2017, which aims at enforcing strict fines and even criminal proceedings against vehicle owners found in violation of its provisions.
The policy mandates the impounding of junk vehicles that are over 15 years old for those running on petrol and more than 10 years old in case they ply on petrol.
Tie-up with PSU
The policy will involve tying up with a Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) with the wherewithal to dispose of such vehicles at a facility which is coming up in the National Capital Region (NCR). It will also aim to empower private entities with such capacity to take up their disposal.
“The idea is to free up as much space as possible to provide parking, especially in the vicinity of residential areas, by removing junk vehicles which have either been abandoned deliberately by their owners who have moved away as well as vehicles which are in junk condition and cannot be utilised by their owners due to their condition,” said a source.
Initially the Department, under relevant provisions of the MV Act, will go after junk vehicles parked across the city. Following this, it is intended to provide the service to the general public who can contact the Department for the de-registration of the junk vehicles before being guided through the process of disposing of these at designated facilities.
The policy in this regard, according to the source, was in the process of being chalked out as per relevant provisions of the Motor Vehicles (MV) Act and expected to be submitted for review to their higher echelons of the Delhi government by the end of December.
Parking charges
According to the source, the Delhi Government was mulling a tie-up with the MSTC, which is a PSU under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Steel and engaged in recycling waste at a facility which it was in the process of constructing for the purpose at Greater Noida.
The new parking policy envisages strict rules for vehicles parked in residential areas where it intends to ensure that parking be allowed in demarcated spaces in residential areas. The parking charges will be decided by civic agencies in consultation with RWAs.
On-street parking, according to the policy, is intended to be priced at least thrice as much as off-street parking. No surface parking shall ordinarily be allowed within 500 metres of multi-level or stack parking.
