BENGALURU:  Bengalureans can look forward to broad, free roads, uncluttered by parked vehicles, if the city’s stakeholders have their way and muscle in a tough parking policy.Having observed that roads have become parking zones, which is leading to traffic jams, the city police commissioner Bhaskar Rao on Thursday wrote to Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), asking the civic authorities to create adequate public parking spaces.  The urban development department and BBMP are, meanwhile, said to be finalising a policy which will define places where vehicles can be parked, and identify areas to create public parking lots. 

According to the policy, citizens will have to ensure that they have adequate parking spaces in their homes and commercial establishments. Additional chief secretary and BBMP Commissioner BH Anil Kumar said the parking policy will be ready in another 10 days and will help police, the people and all other stakeholders. He said that those parking vehicles along footpaths and utilising parking space in their homes or offices for other purposes will be penalised.

The newly introduced penalties in the revised Motor Vehicles Act will be imposed on people for parking on roadsides. Vehicles will have to be parked in earmarked public and private parking spaces only. 
Police officials have stated that roads are meant for vehicles to move, and not be used as parking bays, and requested BBMP to create parking spaces so that vehicles are not parked by the roadsides.

To take this policy forward, heads of BBMP, police and transport department, besides other stakeholders, will hold a meeting and discuss how to ensure that vehicles are not parked along roadsides. Citing the example of shopping areas and Metro stations, a traffic police official said people park for long hours by roadsides instead of in parking lots, to escape payment. This will be checked. 

However, BBMP does not have any plan to implement the proposal of restricting vehicle buyers, who do not have parking space. It was proposed new vehicles should be sold only to those who show availability of parking space.