Pune to get its new ‘parking policy’ soon

Here is some news that vehicle owners may not want to hear. Parking in city will no longer be free. The standing committee of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) on Tuesday approved the new parking policy that will cover the whole city. As per the new policy, residents will need to pay parking fee for two-wheelers as well as night charges. The proposal regarding this will be tabled before the PMC general body meeting and implemented after its approval.

Minimum parking fee for two-wheelers is Rs 2 per hour and maximum Rs 4 per hour and four-wheelers’ minimum charges are Rs10 per hour and maximum is Rs 20 per hour. The city is divided into three zones and charges for each zone would be different.

The off-road parking charges are less than on road charges. Residents will need to pay more for parking on roads but keeping vehicles in parking lots would charge only 70 percentage of the on road charges. For example, if the parking charge on road is Rs 10 per hour for car and the four-wheeler is parked in a parking lot, then the owner of the vehicle needs to pay only Rs 7 per hour.

PMC standing committee chairman Yogesh Mulik briefed the media about parking policy and said that giving a go-ahead to the parking policy was a necessity considering the increasing numbers of vehicles. He said that there is a need to use the roads free for vehicle movement and not for parking.

Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar said, “The way the number of vehicles are increasing in the city, it is not possible to provide adequate parking for all vehicles.”

The civic body accepted the principle that abundant parking supply means rise of more private vehicles in the city and rising vehicle population should not lead to parking space crunch in future.

The PMC parking policy document states that parking is an essential component of transport system. As per the document, a vehicle runs for one hour on an average and is parked for 23 hours in a day. It is also important to consider that a typical vehicle usually needs three different parking spaces — one at the owner’s residence, second at the owner’s office or business place and third at recreational or entertainment facility. The rising numbers of vehicles in Pune city are likely to lead to 4.5 lakh parking spaces every year and it is not manageable.

The rising number of vehicles would soon make parking a public nuisance issue. By considering this, the PMC parking policy aims to change the mindset of provision of parking. “Creation of parking space and land required for that is extremely valuable and no resident has the right to its free use,” states the report.