The first joint venture by the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) and the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) for construction of a multilevel vehicle parking facility in T.Nagar bus terminus is yet to materialise even months after both the agencies agreed.
The total area of the terminus is around 1.5 acre and the total area of the multilevel parking facility would be 17,320 sq m. After the MTC agreed last year to provide land for the joint venture with funds from the CMDA, a proposal was made to develop the parking facility without disturbing the bus terminus, said an official of the CMDA.
Even after everything was favourable to the development of the parking facility, the government shelved the proposal six months ago, the official added.
The multilevel parking lot is expected to help visitors to the crowded shopping area, where parking has remained a concern for long. The four floors of the proposed parking space would house 472 cars and have four elevators for lifting the vehicles. A one-way ramp was also proposed for use during mechanical failure of elevators or during power failure.
The decision taken at a meeting organised by the CMDA with the Transport Department last November was considered a first step by the CMDA towards setting up of multilevel vehicle parking facilities in joint venture with various land-owning government departments.
“The parking facility in the area would certainly reduce traffic congestion. But it should be without any additional commercial development of space in the bus stand,” said S. Santhanam, former member-Chief Urban Planner, CMDA.
The CMDA had opted for the model proposed by the report of Mecon Limited, a Union Government enterprise, which was hired to prepare a feasibility report for developing multilevel car parking complexes at six locations a few years ago.
This was proposed to be a revenue-sharing model to mitigate the problems of parking. Everything fell in place after four years but suddenly the project was shelved by the government a few months ago, said an official of CMDA.
