The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has welcomed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi's proposal to hike parking charges as a step towards further reform.
Stating that the city needs high parking charges to control traffic chaos and dampen parking demand and car usage and that the higher revenue from increased parking charges should be reinvested to improve public transport, CSE noted that parking crisis and traffic congestion are the result of growing dependence on cars and availability of cheap and free parking.
“Manage parking well, hike parking rates, limit parking where good public transport is available, and give people more attractive options for travel is the way forward,” said CSE's Anumita Roychowdhury.
“The current MCD rates are abysmally lower than the rates in the areas under New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and in shopping malls, cinemas, and airport. While in the prime areas of NDMC the surface parking rates are Rs 5-10 per hour, which also needs further hike, in MCD areas the current rates work out to be a mere Rs 1 per hour. Ironically, a car user pays a pittance for parking compared to what a bus user pays as fares for a regular daily journey in Delhi. We also urge the municipal agencies to immediately eliminate generous supply of free and cheap parking in Delhi,” said Ms. Roychowdhury.
“Without the strategy to discourage car usage the ongoing investments in Metro and improved buses may not give the best results of lowering congestion and pollution,” she added.
Stating that uncontrolled parking will block the options of using the same land for other uses like school, affordable housing, commercial centre or public greens and walking spaces, CSE in a release noted: “Car parks use up high value urban land but pays nothing or pittance for using the land. The subsidy to the car owner works out to be even higher if the rental or the land cost of the parking space in prime areas is considered. Increased investments in expensive multi-storied structured car parks will further increase the subsidy burden as the parking rates are not fixed to recover the cost. This also leads to very iniquitous use of urban land.”
Globally, cities are desperate to free up road space from cars and well managed and priced parking will benefit all, it added.
