Resident Welfare Associations of the city insists on taking a look at the final draft before it is implemented in October.
With the near geometric rise of vehicles in the city every year, parking has become a major challenge in recent years. Clearly, there are issues beyond space. While parking charges in commercial areas are fairly steep, security measures lack in the residential colonies. And all these challenges further get compounded by the fact that many people openly flout the existing parking norms.
Addressing these concerns, the Delhi Government has finalised a fresh set of parking rules. But before it is implemented from the first week of October, the Residents Welfare Associations (RWA) of the city have decided to take a look at the final draft of the parking policy. RWA representatives led by the East Delhi RWA Joint Forum have sought a meeting with the Delhi Chief Minister and Transport Minister in this regard.
They insist on this to ensure that their suggestions on residential colony parking have been included. The new parking policy has been framed by a judicially appointed Special Task Force (STF) headed by Sunita Narain, a noted environmentalist. It incorporates diverse inputs from the transport department, traffic police, municipal corporations and the Delhi Development Authority.
Nagender Sharma, a senior Delhi Government spokesperson, told City Spidey that the STF had submitted the final draft of the parking policy to the transport department for a detailed review. “Now the final draft has been sent to the LG’s office for approval. Once the LG approves, a cabinet committee of the Delhi Government shall announce the date for its implementation.”
RWAs are of the view that residential colonies should be exempted from strict parking rules. They have also opposed the involvement of private parking operators in residential colonies.
BS Rawat, a member of the RWA team, said, “Roads in residential colonies basically fall under MCD, PWD and DDA jurisdictions. Hence we have suggested that parking of residential colonies should not be allotted to private companies.”
RWAs have also expressed their concern about the security of vehicles parked on roads. “If the road of my society comes under EDMC (East Delhi Municipal Corporation) I understand that I will have to pay parking charges to it. However, I also want to know about the security measures. I want to know who shall be responsible for installing CCTV cameras and appointing security guards,” said Rajeshwari Singh, another member of RWA panel.
Under the new policy, people will have to pay Rs 50 for three hours during peak hours. The parking charge for the same length of time in non-peak hours will be Rs 30.
