Haphazard parking on the city’s already choked roads may soon become history. The state government has cleared 16 multi-level parking space projects proposed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The parking space thus created would accommodate around 22,000 vehicles.
Precious carriageway space would be cleared once these parking lots are ready, as all vehicles will not be allowed to park on the roads.
Central Mumbai has got a major chunk of the parking projects - 12 in all - and four have gone to the suburbs.
The state government has given priority to clearing civic proposals for parking space in the 6 sq km radius of Parel, Dadar, Lower Parel and Worli areas. The central business district has shifted to these areas — earlier called Girangaon or textile mill area — and has seen mushrooming of office space following the redevelopment in Mumbai in the last few years.
Over a period of time, the BMC would like to completely ban parking of vehicles in most parts of Mumbai. Roads of Mumbai apparently cannot take more than 8,000 parked vehicles.
Most multi-level parking lots are proposed on mill land, and will be created through private public partnership (PPP). The developer will get to exploit elsewhere in the city extra floor space index (FSI) under the Development Control Rules to build residential or commercial space to be sold on the market.
The BMC had proposed 24 parking plots on mill land, of which the state government has approved 16 so far.
The parking space will be operated automatically. There will be a token issued by a machine to each vehicle entering the parking lot on payment of charges, and the ticket can be used to exit the parking lot.
