Delhi: EDMC plans parking lots for 1,100 vehicles to decongest busy markets

NEW DELHI: East Delhi Municipal Corporation is planning to create parking spaces for over 1,100 vehicles by March 2021, a move that would bring relief to motorists in a city where finding regulated parking space is a daily struggle.
The civic agency would be developing five multilevel parking lots at Apsara Border, Preet Vihar (Aditya Arcade), Babarpur Road, Pushta Road and Nand Nagri. The cash-starved civic agency is looking at various options to fund the projects, including constructing them on public-private-partnership (PPP) basis.
“The parking projects at Apsara Border and Preet Vihar will be developed on the PPP model.The concessionaire will keep 25-30% area for developing commercial space to recover project costs. The remaining area will be used by EDMC as parking space for 300 vehicles,” said EDMC standing committee chairman Sandeep Kapoor.
The other three parking lots will be developed on engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) model. “We will give funds to the contractor and, later, run the facility on our own. We recently recalled the tender for these projects as there was no response from bidders. The work will start as soon as the tender is awarded,” said a senior EDMC official.
The parking lot at Krishna Nagar, constructed at a cost of Rs 23.56 crore, is fully operation and used by hundreds of visitors every day, EDMC said.
While EDMC has the smallest area among the three civic bodies, some of the city’s most-populated areas and busiest markets, such as Laxmi Nagar, Nand Nagri, Krishna Nagar and Gandhi Nagar, are under its jurisdiction.
“The new parking lots were planned near these markets to cater the increasing demand and reducing congestion on roads. In fact, we have identified areas on the busy Vikas Marg where stack parking can be developed. This will help decongest Vikas Marg, which faces frequent traffic jams due to haphazard parking of vehicles on roadsides,” said Kapoor.
The parking lots have been planned near the BSES and DDA offices on Vikas Marg and Scope Tower, District Centre Complex. “Considering that the land belongs to DDA, which is already running surface parking there, we have asked the area MP to get the land transferred to us for developing the parking facilities. We are yet to receive a final word from them,” said Kapoor, adding that DDA also plans to develop parking lots in east Delhi.