Being environmentally conscious is a necessity, not choice

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In a very significant development, malls will be allowed to give their facilities for parking to private car owners at night. This is set to begin from December 1 and is extremely significant given the parking crunch in Mumbai. A plan by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the new Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA) aims to offer at least 6,500 new car spots across malls. Malls are going to fix the prices and some will be charging per day, while others may charge monthly. This, experts say, is beneficial for those with a parking space crunch, with homes in the vicinity of the malls.

It will free up the roads, too, which is vital. We cannot have large swathes of roads taken over by vehicles, which puts pedestrians in danger, given the state of our footpaths in some patches.

When parking is so scarce, even the very little open space that Mumbai has, and which citizens need to enjoy, tends to get taken over. From building compounds that tend to shrink to a sliver effectively cutting off access for children to play, to recreational facilities illegally taken over as parking lots, there are many
valid woes.

Meanwhile, we need a double pronged effort that is focussed on creating more parking spots, but also a need to cut down on cars. This means upping connectivity and efficiency of public transport. While the pandemic has certainly had more people reaching for private transport as a safety measure, public transport has to always
be priority.

Then, people must be conscious and car pool when able, as it is also the greener option. If both efforts work on parallel lines, cutting cars, upping parking spaces, we can certainly see a win-win situation for this city.