15 April,2011 06:34 AM IST | | Varun Singh, Ranjeet Jadhav and Sanjeev Devasia
Developers say the government deciding the location of parking lots will help in the redevelopment of dilapidated buildings and ease parking woes in the congested area
WHILE Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan's decision of going slow on clearing real estate projects to avoid a repeat of the Adarsh scam and some other measures have caused some consternation to builders lately, they have welcomed his government's proposed changes in the parking policy with open arms.
Builders feel the government's parking policy is a boon for the decrepit buildings of SoBo
The state government is working on a policy (see box) which will allow builders to construct parking lots to gain extra FSI only in areas where the government sees a need for them and not in any area chosen by the builder.
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Developers feel this will be a boon for the several thousand dilapidated buildings in south Mumbai and also solve parking problems in the area.
It may be recalled that Chavan had, last month, put a stay on all parking lots which were yet to get commencement certificates from the BMC.
Anand Gupta, treasurer, Builders' Association of India, said, "Most of the vehicles travel to the A, B, C and D wards of the city, all of which are in south Mumbai. Of these, the C Ward has the most dilapidated buildings, which number close to 17,000.
South Mumbai is also a commercial hub and people have to go through a lot of trouble to find parking space. If the parking FSI is given only in areas like these, two major problems can be solved one of dilapidated buildings and the other of parking."
Gupta said the move was needed as some builders got parking lots sanctioned to further their own ends with the support of bureaucrats. Because of this, most of the parking lots were supposed to come up in the Dadar-Parel area, especially on Senapati Bapat Marg thereby creating an imbalance.
A real estate expert said the previous parking policy was misused by some builders, who used the extra FSI from parking lots to construct 50- and even 100-storey towers, especially in central Mumbai.
Traffic density
The traffic density in the city has gone up from 717 vehicles per km last year to 892 per km this year. Speaking to MiD DAY, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Brijesh Singh said, "Constructing parking lots will help, but it will not solve the traffic problem completely. New business hubs on the lines of the Bandra-Kurla-Complex (BKC) should come up in suburbs so that south Mumbai does not have to shoulder the burden of so much traffic."
Singh added that there should be rules in place where a person can purchase a vehicle only after proving that he has parking space for it so that the roads are not blocked by people parking there. "Such rules are already practiced in foreign countries and we should adopt them after making modifications as per our requirements," he said.
Number game
According to figures from the Mumbai Environment Social Network, an NGO that works for traffic discipline and management in the city, Mumbai has more cars per km than any other city in the world. The city's roads are used by vehicles registered here as well as a substantial number of those registered in Thane and Panvel.
Mumbai's roads are used by 8 lakh cars, 15 lakh two wheelers, 15,000 commercial vehicles and 13,000 buses. The annual growth rate for vehicles is 9 per cent, that of population is 2.5 per cent and road space is less than 0.5 per cent. The total area of Greater Mumbai is 450 sq km and the length of roads running through it is 1,975 km.
Parking woes
60,000 cars are added to the city's roads every year. Each new car requires three parking spaces ufffd one at the residence, one at the workplace and one for other occasions. Each car requires about 100 sq ft for parking. Thus, 60,000 new cars require 150 acres of parking space.
PARADIGM SHIFT?
"The parking policy was framed in 2007-08, when Vilasrao Deshmukh held the reins of the state. The intention of the state then was that the city should get sufficient parking place, which was badly needed. However, it was felt that in the process of generating parking space, more importance was given to builders' needs than those of the people," said a principal secretary.
"After Prithviraj Chavan u00a0took over, he has been u00a0planning a policy geared towards meeting the needs of the common man. The thrust of the parking policy will change and local bodies will dictate the location of the parking lots," he added.
