AMC’s multi-level parking failure

AHMEDABAD: Finding a parking slot is a major worry for anyone who has to go to CG Road, particularly on the stretch from SP Stadium Crossroads to Swastik Crossroads due to construction work on a new parking space being underway. Despite there being almost no available parking space on this stretch, there is no visible increase in utilization of the Navrangpura multi-level parking complex, which is about a kilometre away.
The situation at the multi-level parking complex in Kankaria is the same, as it too wears a deserted look, despite footfalls at Kankaria lake and garden increasing in the summer.
On Friday afternoon, when a TOI team conducted a random check at these parking complexes, it found barely 70 cars and 45 two-wheelers at the Navrangpura complex. Similarly, there were just 20 cars and five two-wheelers at the Kankaria complex. This puts utilizations levels at 20% and 5%, respectively. Ten months after the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) and the Ahmedabad Traffic Police began their drive to regulate parking by creating additional parking spaces and enforcing parking rules, the two biggest parking complexes spaces developed by the AMC, at a total cost of Rs 30 crore, are grossly under-utilized.

Mechanized parking complex now a white elephant
Ahmedabad: The Maninagar parking complex, the city’s first mechanised parking complex, has turned into a white elephant for the AMC. The Ahmedabad Municipal corporation pays an agency Rs 3.5 lakh a month, to man this multi-level ‘robotic’ parking complex, while income from the complex averages Rs 50,000 a month.
The city’s only robotic parking complex was inaugurated in July 2013 and has failed to attract users ever since. The Kankaria lake, just 100m away, sees thousands of visitors every day but hardly any car or two-wheeler owners use the complex. The reason, authorities claim, is that most visitors use the free parking space available along the lake. “Unless on-street parking is banned for a specific radius around the complex, no one will use the parking lot,” a senior municipal official said.
Municipal commissioner Vijay Nehra admits that the spots chosen for the multilevel parking complexes were faulty, as there is a large football ground nearby, where people can park for free. He added that the AMC is working on a proposal to ensure that the football ground is used properly, not for parking.
Another senior officer said that the AMC, to nudge people to use the facility, had once even allowed free parking for one month. The handling contract for the complex expired in June 2018 and there have been no takers for it ever since.