Soon, parking vehicles on the arterial roads of the City’s central business district (CBD) may be a costly affair.
By restricting the parking to designated locations and fixing fees for the same, the government proposes to decongest the major thoroughfares, thereby eliminating traffic bottlenecks.
The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) is preparing a parking action plan for the CBD in association with BBMP. To begin with, parking will be banned on the arterial roads of the City.
This was announced by V Manjula, the DULT Commissioner, while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a seminar on ‘Doubling public transport share: A thrust to make public transport a choice for every citizen,’ in the City on Thursday.
Manjula said the State government had partially approved the ‘Parking Policy for Bangalore City,’ with some modifications to the guidelines proposed by DULT.
The officer said the ban would allow smooth flow of mass transport vehicles. There would be different slabs of parking fees, depending on the zone, location, duration and time of the day. Weekend congestion tax would also be introduced, wherein vehicle owners would have to shell out more for parking during weekends at select locations in the CBD, she said.
DULT sources said MG Road, Brigade Road and Cunningham Road were some of the places where vehicle owners would have to shell out more per hour of parking.
The parking locations would be selected only after ensuring that there is good public transport access to them. The idea is to ensure that the public shift to mass transport and stop using private vehicles, said a senior official of DULT.
Manjula said existing parking infrastructure designs would be revised to make them more customer-friendly. There is a plan to reserve 10 per cent of the parking space for bicycles. “We are planning to provide incentives to those who allow parking in their vacant plots. Area-specific parking plan is being developed in association with BBMP,” she said.
The officer said the Netherlands model of parking would be adopted in the City, dividing it into three zones (A, B and C). The parking fees would be based on land value, type of parking system in place and the time of day.
Manjula said as on March 2011, there were 3.79 million vehicles in the City, for which 20.5 million square metre is the parking space required.