MP’s new parking policy to have greater IT intervention

South-delhi-parking

The Madhya Pradesh Government has framed a draft parking policy in response to the ever-increasing number of vehicles resulting in a space crunch in cities.

However, the policy will have to be given thumbs-up by the state-level unified transport council, headed by the Chief Minister, to come into being. It calls for a parking master plan for each city in conformity with the state policy.

The policy proposes an intelligent parking system (IPS) to monitor parking operators, vehicles and in turn provide for better traffic management. For instance, if a commuter is finding a parking space in a commercial area on a weekend, when there is usually dearth of parking space, the IPS would guide the commuter to the nearest parking space, mentioned an urban administration and development (UAD) official.

Apart from that, the IPS would also monitor illegal parking which in many cases is facilitated by a parking operator and would follow auto registration with no need for printed ticketing.

The draft also recommends that vehicle registration should be linked to proof of availability of parking space by vehicle owner.

According to the draft, new policy calls for differential parking rates against the current unified rates applicable across city limits. It also suggests creation various controlled parking measures like creation of ‘no vehicle zones’ and more multilevel parking.

Taking a more liberalised view of limited space availability, draft policy recommends calls not including parking facility in the floor area ration (FAR). Taking cue from policy followed in other metros, draft policy makes it mandatory to make parking provision before any new colonies are approved.

“Parking spaces in urban need to be used as a resource to facilitate regulation of traffic and boost economic activity,” said UAD OSD transport, Kamal Nagar. “Currently, compared with cost of developing a parking space, there is barely one-tenth return on investment. Also, city corporations are unaware of profits made by mostly unorganised private parking operators,” he said. A dedicated urban transport fund of Rs 10 crore is also in the proposal.