DMRC hikes parking rates by up to 67%

Delhi Metro on Wednesday announced that it will increase the parking rates for all vehicles at their metro stations. To be implemented from May 1, cost for parking four wheelers will be Rs 30 for the first six hours in place of the current charge of Rs 20. For up to 12 hours, four wheelers will be charged Rs 50 in place of

Rs 30. Those parking their vehicles at metro stations will have to pay Rs 60 against the earlier charge of Rs 40.

Owners of the two wheelers will have to shell out Rs 15 for six hours against the earlier rate of Rs 10, Rs 25 up to 12 hours in place of Rs 15 and Rs 30 for more than 12 hours. The monthly night time charges for parking two wheelers have been hiked to Rs 600 from Rs 475, while the night time parking charge for each day has been increased from Rs 20 to Rs 30.

Four-wheeler users will have to pay Rs 1,200 for monthly charges and Rs 60 per day for night parking and Rs 1,200 per month for night parking.

The daily night charges (levied for 12 am to 5am) were Rs 40 and the monthly night charges were Rs 1,000.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has criticised the hike in parking charges by the DMRC and said the latest move, along with the recent fare increase, “will completely kill Delhi Metro”.  The CM said that these moves would lead to an increase in congestion and pollution on the city’s roads.

Justifying the parking rate hike, a senior Delhi Metro official said, “The Metro parking charges have not been changed for the past five years and the current charges are much lower than the parking charges being levied by civic agencies for their parking lots.

It is therefore necessary to rationalise the metro parking charges in view of higher charges by the civic agencies.”

The cyclists too have not been spared from the fare hike. For six hours, the cycle owners will have to pay Rs 5 as opposed to Rs 3; for up to 12 hours, Rs 5 as opposed to Rs 4; and for more than 12 hours, Rs 10 will have to be paid to the Delhi Metro as opposed to Rs 5.

The monthly charges have been increased from Rs 45 to Rs 70. The per day night time charges have been increased to Rs 10 from Rs 5 and the monthly charge have been priced at Rs 70 as opposed to Rs 45 for the night time parking.

In October last year, the Delhi Metro had effected the fare hike, leading to a rise of around Rs 10 for nearly every distance slab, which had come barely five months after an earlier hike of up to 100 per cent. The metro, however, lost over three lakh commuters a day after the steep fare hike came into effect on October 10, an RTI query had revealed. The metro’s daily average ridership came down to 24.2 lakh in October, 2017 from 27.4 lakh in September that year, translating to a fall of around 11 per cent, the RTI had revealed.