Curbing pollution: Four-fold hike in charges in east Delhi’s parking lots

Residents of east Delhi now need to shell out four times the current rate to park their vehicles at East Delhi Municipal Corporation’s (EDMC) parking lots, officials said.

Under the revised rates, parking for cars is now ?80 per hour from the earlier ?20 an hour. For two-wheelers, the hourly parking rates have been increased from ?10 to ?40.

The civic agency has issued directions to contractors to hike parking fee by four times starting last Friday, senior officials who are privy to the development said.

The decision was taken on the directions of Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) in view of the increasing level of pollution in the city, said a senior EDMC official. This measure, also known as differential parking rates, has also been mandated under the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap).

The south and north civic agencies, meanwhile, are yet to issue similar orders.

“The matter is under consideration in our area and as soon as we receive a final approval from the mayor, we will also direct contractors to charge increased rates from visitors,” said a spokesperson for South Delhi Municipal Corporation.

Last year, all three civic agencies hiked the parking rates by four times following the direction of lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal and increased in pollution level in city. The hiked parking rates were in effect for 15 days in areas under all three agencies.

EDMC officials said that contractors have been asked to execute the order till any further direction is issued from DPCC or Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA).

“For more clarity, we had also organised a meeting with parking contractors on Friday. They were asked to regularly check pollution level on Central Pollution Control Board website and display a copy of order at their entrances to avoid confusion,” said Aman Rajput, assistant commissioner, remunerative and project cell, EDMC.

However, when HT?conducted a spot check and visited three parking lots in east Delhi on Monday, the parking attendants were yet to implement the order.

At Vikas Marg, a parking attendant said, “We have heard of the order and an EDMC official had also visited the parking site today to ensure execution. But we can’t increase the rates until we get an official notification about the final nod from contractor.”

Another parking contractor near Karkardooma Court said that he is yet to receive such an order from the civic agency. “We are still charging ?20 per hour from four wheelers and ?10 per hour from two wheelers,” he said.

EDMC official said that they would start surprise inspections soon. “Those who fail to comply with the directions will face stringent action as per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act. The contractor will also need to keep a separate register to record the collection during this period and share the report with our officials during the inspections,” said the official.

“We really hope it discourages people from using more private cars, one of the factors for environmental pollution,” he said.

SDMC has 115 surface parking sites and four functional multilevel parking sites while the north corporation has 96 surface parking sites and six multilevel parking facilities. The east corporation has 51 surface parking sites and NDMC has 116 surface parking sites.