Delhiites, brace yourself for a 2x hike in parking fees

Municipal Corporation of Delhi ( MCD) plans to double parking charges at nearly 400 surface parking lots in the city and will submit a revised proposal in this regard at the Nov 14 House meeting, according to officials.

On Friday, CAQM had reviewed GRAP implementation measures and issued instructions to the civic body to evaluate public parking fee frameworks comprehensively.

The move comes after the civic body's proposal seeking to quadruple the rates was rejected.

"For the past nine months, even before GRAP norms were enforced, MCD presented the proposal five or six times to grant the commissioner the authority to increase parking fees up to four times as soon as GRAP II came into force. A second proposal to rationalise the parking fees, depending on the location and footfall in the area, was also tabled in the House. However, both proposals were put on hold. Later, in Sept, the proposal to hike parking fees as per GRAP norms was referred back. We can't go ahead with it without a nod from the elected representatives in the House meeting," said an MCD official.

The civic body had earlier said that parking operations were handled by concessionaires through monthly licence agreements, and therefore, increasing fees was a bit difficult.

"The sudden closure of existing contracts may attract litigation. However, an advisory was issued on Oct 4 to all parking contractors to strictly comply with the directions for smooth traffic management," the civic body stated in its report on air pollution submitted to NGT.

(With TOI inputs)