Underground parking project in Mumbai delayed

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) ambitious plan of developing underground parking at different locations in Mumbai is not looking financially viable. The civic body is working on its return on investment, which currently does not seem viable.

In 2016, the BMC had planned to develop parking space in Mumbai Central and Bandra. These two parking lots were supposed to make available around 10,000 sq ft more space for parking in the city. As per the plan, the parking lot below Raosaheb Patwardhan garden in Bandra has provision for parking around 550 vehicles. Similarly, the parking lot at Zulla Maidan in Madanpura near Mumbai Central will have the capacity of 900 parking spaces, and will accommodate 350 four-wheelers and 550 two-wheelers.

Civic chief Ajoy Mehta had even addressed the issue of parking space shortage in the city in his budget in 2017-18 and made a provision of Rs 1 crore. The development plan 2024, too, contains provision for parking lot under a garden.

According to officials working on this project, the master plan for the underground parking lot and shopping plaza under Bandra's Raosaheb Patwardhan Park was prepared for the BMC by consulting architect Hafeez Contractor.

Mohsin Haider, a Congress corporator from Andheri, is planning another way of developing a parking lot since since the public-private-partnership (PPP) model is not looking feasible. According to him, the BMC can develop it itself.

"Earlier, the plan was to develop the parking lot under PPP model. But this did not materialise owning to various reasons," said an official from BMC's Traffic department. He added that each car parking space was estimated at over Rs 2 lakh and it would take many years to recover. "The period of return on investment was very long and that is why the project has been delayed," added the official.

However, the senior civic official claimed that the project is still alive. "We have to work out underground parking project as this can solve parking problem to some extent," said the official.