Stacked parking

Multi-level and underground parking lots are the only solution to India’s chronic parking shortage

Delhi has a parking problem. And Delhi isn’t alone. Name any Indian city and haphazardly-parked cars, motorcycles, trucks, in fact, any category of motorised vehicle, are a traffic hazard and eat up space on pavements, roads and even playgrounds. Delhi is not alone. Every urbanised area of the country is suffering from a severe parking crunch, both in commercial and residential zones. The older parts of many cities, developed in the 1960s and 1970s before personal car ownership became the norm for upper middle-class Indians, are particularly hard-hit and now as families acquire their second and third cars coupled with a lack of investment or slow progress in public transport infrastructure building, things are becoming worse.

The decision by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation to drastically reduce parking charges in multi-level and underground parking lots as well as the move to encourage building more such parking lots near areas with particularly bad parking problems is a welcome step. By keeping the parking rates affordable, car drivers would be encouraged to park in these formal parking lots. However, the big issue is not just the lack of parking space but that of punitive measures for badly parked cars and two-wheelers. In Central Delhi, the situation is well-managed for the large part, but in the outer areas of the city, particularly in unauthorised colonies, with their narrow lanes, the problem is grave.

Of course, the best way to deal with rising levels of traffic and parking problems would be to build much more robust and comprehensive public transportation solutions. Enrique Penalosa, the former mayor of the Colombian city of Bogota, said that the sign of a developed city is not one where the poor also have a car but one where the rich also use public transport. If Delhi aspires to be a modern, world-class city, it needs to ramp up its public transportation infrastructure. Inordinate delays in acquiring new buses and delayed approvals for the next phase of the Delhi Metro do not behove the Arvind Kejriwal Government. And even though the new Magenta Line finally connects the entirety of South Delhi, one must not forget that the line has opened three years late.

Even if work on public transport infrastructure speeds up, rising affluence and aspirations mean that car ownership will continue to climb in urban India even though fuel prices climb. Thus a solution to the parking problem has to be found. The development of the new parking lots and their reduced charges are just a start. Increased charges for overground parking and stricter enforcement are the only way forward and other Indian cities should study if Delhi’s experiment is successful.