New parking concept proposed

To advance the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) pet plan to improve the parking situation in Mumbai, the Development Plan 2034 (DP) has proposed a bifurcation in the concept of parking within the city, while also adhering to the minimum parking norms recommended by the civic body to government of Maharashtra in 2012. Parking spaces in Mumbai will now be classified as on-street parking lots and off-street parking lots.

On-street parking spaces will essentially be public spaces that will be used for private and community parking spaces, after parking zones are decided with some exceptions. The BMC plans to come up with an integrated parking policy that will charge for this provision.

Parking spaces will be constructed alongside roads, under flyovers and even under public open spaces, playgrounds, parks and gardens and DP roads. This will mean that large open grounds like the Cross Maidan will house parking lots underneath them. However, the provision in the Development Control Regulations (DCR) of the DP specifies that other large open spaces such as Oval Maidan, Azad Maidan and Shivaji Park will not host parking lots.

On the other hand, off-street parking will be created by developers on private plots in return for which they will get exclusive benefits for providing parking space within the area to be developed. Some incentives include a hike in the floor space index (FSI) for the remaining construction as long as the parking lot is handed over to the civic body free of cost. If the owner constructs multi-storey parking spaces or shared parking spaces between multiple housing or commercial complexes, the BMC will provide an additional benefit in the FSI norms for the rest of the building. This will essentially mean that the owner will get additional construction space.

Single-window system The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has taken a step towards fulfilling the corporators’ long-standing demand by officially providing for an integrated single-window ticketing system.

This will mean that commuters taking a single long journey involving multiple modes of transport will not have to buy a different ticket each time they board a new mode of transport.

To achieve this, the civic body will create credit-based smart cards, and will identify routes that use multiple transport systems such as buses, metros and the existing railway network.