The Hindu : New Delhi News : Plan to set up guided parking at Palika

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Thursday, May 01, 2008
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New Delhi

Plan to set up guided parking at Palika

Manisha Jha

New Delhi Municipal Council to provide state-of-the-art electronic management system

It will ease entry and exit of vehicles
Users will be told about vacant slots

NEW DELHI: Delhiites tired of complaining about parking space shortage in and around Connaught Place may soon have something to cheer about if all goes according to the New Delhi Municipal Council’s plans to provide a new state-of-the-art electronic parking guidance and management system at Palika Parking.

Following roping in of “Influence Computer Consultants” and submission of its report, the civic body has now provided conceptual approval to the ambitious plan. The Rs.2.67-crore plan is expected to be implemented in 12 months after final approval by the NDMC.

Under this concept, vehicle users would be guided through a wide range of modern equipment including sensors, lights, signboards and directional displays to the closest vacant car space existing in the parking lot and similarly for identifying their car location at the time of exit. Apart from boasting of an automatic online guidance at each decision-making junction, the plan also aims at zone-wise sub-division of areas for easy identification.

According to the NDMC, once this system is in operation it will ease entry and exit of vehicles. An NDMC official said: “The Palika Parking has a capacity for 1,050 cars and it is a three-level car parking. But at present there is no car parking guidance management system and all vehicles are parked at the individual’s discretion leading to chaos at many places in the parking area.”

“Often people are helpless and cannot take out their vehicles due to wrong parking by others. All these factors discourage people from using the Palika Parking and hence there was a demand for this kind of a system. Informing the users about vacant slot and then guiding them to it will de-congest car parking at the entry and exit points,” he added.

Importantly the plan proposes reversal of the existing entry and exit to Palika Parking as an alternative traffic movement plan, a move that has not gone down well with the Palika Bazar Market Association which claims that the plan would confuse the commuters. At present the entry is located at Gate No. 2 of Palika Bazar and the exit is from Baba Kharak Singh Marg.

Palika Bazaar Market Association president Dinesh Gaud said: “We appreciate NDMC’s endeavours to electronically upgrade the existing parking system. However, the reversal of the present entry and exit point is impractical as it would make the proposed parking movement incoherent with the existing clockwise traffic movement in Connaught Place.”

The NDMC, however, clarifies that the final decision on the reversal would be subject to a review by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic), the Palika Bazaar Market Association and the consultants among others.

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