BMC extends tenure of expert panel; parking authority to be delayed by a year

Haphazardly parked vehicles add to traffic jams across the city. File/Shadab Khan

Hoping for a solution to parking woes in Mumbai? Wait for at least a year. The BMC has extended the tenure of the expert panel that has been entrusted with the task of forming the city's parking authority, clearly indicating that it won't come into existence before 2023. Once ready, the parking authority will have sweeping powers with regard to parking management in the city.

It has been six years since the BMC mentioned forming an independent parking authority for the city, in the Development Control and Promotion Regulation-2034. Earlier, the corporation had appointed All India Institute of Local Self Government (AIILSG) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) to conduct studies and form the first-of-its-kind parking authority for the city. The BMC spent R3 crore on the efforts between February 2019 and January 2020. The whole exercise got stalled due to the COVID pandemic.

"The previous panel completed some of the work like identifying parking lots in some wards and drafting a policy," said an official from the BMC. The expert panel was reconstituted in January 2021 to study legal aspects of formation of the parking authority and create a comprehensive plan for parking management in all 24 wards.

Former IAS officer Ramanath Jha was appointed as an advisor while the TISS was designated as the agency in charge of recruiting urban planners, traffic planners, urban designers, and geographic information system designers to help the parking authority function. Initially, the cost of the contract was R2 crore but it increased to Rs 4.7 crore, including spending on raising awareness.

Officials said the BMC chief has extended the contract of the expert panel from January 18, 2022, to January 17, 2023. For this, the BMC will spend Rs 5.62 crore, which includes Rs 3.2 crore for payments to the experts, Rs 1 crore for advertisement and allowances, and R1.4 crore towards a survey.

"The key tasks of the expert panel also include policy formation, ward-wise detailed plan for providing convenient, safe, and affordable parking across the city, fixing parking rates, deciding on fines for offences, issues pertaining to traffic signs and boards, use of technology for parking management, creating city parking pools for proper use of government, commercial and residential properties for parking," said a BMC official.