Roadside night parking in Mumbai has finally become a thing after a delay of almost a year. This scheme is introduced by the BMC and has attracted controversy since the time the civic body wanted to test it in A-ward last year when the plan was scrapped due to lack of approvals.
Under this policy, the BMC will allow building residents in South Mumbai to park their vehicles on the road outside their building by paying an amount of ₹1,800 a month per vehicle. The ward will include Fort, Colaba and Marine Drive. Requests will be entertained only by residential societies that will have to pay six months’ fees in advance after which they will be allotted the residential parking slots. These parking slots can be used only during a designated time slot and not round the clock, as told by Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner and ward officer at A-ward.
The scheme will function on a pilot basis for six months. The civic chief gave the ward office a nod for the scheme on Saturday.
On the basis of footfall, various areas in Mumbai attract, the city has been divided into three categories: A (area that attracts higher footfalls); B (general commercial-office areas); and C (commercial areas frequented more by the middle and lower middle class).
The BMC will put up a board at the site stating that night parking at the roadside has been allotted to a particular society. They also will draw yellow boxes to demarcate the parking slot for a vehicle.
Though the locals in Colaba sounded positive, they said they would prefer 24-hour parking. They suggest that the BMC must allow them parking spots on their personal capacity. Subhash Motwani, president of Clean Heritage Colaba Residents' Association, said that the BMC must come up with a separate plan for old heritage buildings in the area that don't have any parking space inside the premises and where residents are forced to park their vehicles on the road.
On one hand, local corporator Makrand Narvekar said that 38 societies were waiting for the implementation of the policy and wished the parking facilities to be regulated. While on the other, BJP MLA from Colaba Raj Purohit said that the residents of the area he represents are strongly opposed to the policy. He alleged BMC of being ‘rude’ and not taking people into its confidence before designing the policy. He promised to write to BMC listing the objectives.
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