The Hindu : New Delhi News : Parking rates draw traders' ire

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 28, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Parking rates draw traders' ire

By Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI, JULY 27. Traders in Lutyens' Delhi are up in arms against the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC)'s "illogical and unjustified" decision to raise the parking charges by as much as 900 per cent from September 1. While all the market associations and trader bodies have denounced any such move, it is the Connaught Place shopkeepers' union -- New Delhi Traders Association -- that has welcomed the move and even decided to foot the parking bills of their customers.

"The NDMC has decided to ruin whatever business that is happening in and around Connaught Place. Already people have been avoiding visiting this place mainly due to the ongoing construction work of the Metro Rail that has occupied all the major roads and bylanes in the area. And now the new parking rates will definitely keep people away from the Capital's heart," said Subhash Kakkar, Chairman of the Palika Bazar Market Association.

"We are already worried about our dropping sales and this new parking rates will add to our woes. Increasing parking by as much as 10 times is totally arbitrary particularly when the civic body has failed to provide any elaborate parking infrastructure in its area. If at all a hike is necessary, it should not be more than double the existing rates," said J.L. Mehra, President of the Janpath Traders' Association. Both the traders' bodies are planning to meet the top NDMC functionaries to demand withdrawal of any such "highly impractical" move.

However, the NDTA has "justified" the decision to hike parking charges and has even approved a proposal where its members have agreed to share parking bills of their customers. "Decongestion of Connaught Place has been our long sanding demand. Shoppers have been avoiding this once bustling market mainly due to parking woes. Parking in Connaught Place is usually occupied by vehicles of office-goers or those belonging to business establishments spread in the vicinity. As a result, visitors have been avoiding the market as they rarely find parking space here," said the NDTA General Secretary, Paramjit Kaur.

"We hope that this will force office-goers to start pool-in exercise while coming to office and thus making more parking space for our customers. And on our part, we have decided to reimburse some portion of parking charges of our customers. In this way, it will not only attract shoppers to this famous marketplace but will also lead to revival of our business," she added.

Meanwhile, the shopkeepers of Khan Market are furious with the NDMC proposal. "We are shocked to see the name of our market in the list. In Khan Market, shopkeepers have deployed attendants who provide free parking to visitors. We have upgraded our parking space and ourselves manage it. The NDMC has acted in a very irresponsible manner by adding the name of our market to the list. We are going to lodge a protest with the Chief Minister, Shiela Dikshit, against it," said the Khan Market Traders' Association head, Sanjiv Mehra.

Denouncing the move of hiking parking charges, Mr. Mehra lambasted the Council for having failed to establish any parking infrastructure in its area. "The NDMC has announced three major parking projects at Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and opposite Dilli Haat, but work on none of them has started. This proves how serious is the civic body in providing more parking space to motorists," he added.

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