Four-fold hike in parking rates draws mixed response: To pay or not to pay

As dense smog engulfed the national capital region and the level of pollutants increased, the Delhi government Wednesday ordered a four-fold increase in parking fee.

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At a parking lot in south Delhi. Express

At the entry gate of the DMRC parking lot in Nehru Place, Sunny Gill (31) argues with two parking attendants who ask him to pay Rs 120. “Every day, I park my car for six hours and pay Rs 20. Even if the rates have been increased four-fold, it will come to Rs 80. Why are you charging more,” said Gill, who works at an advisory firm for the petroleum industry in Nehru Place. “This money is not going in our pockets. We are just following orders. The parking fee has come to Rs 120 because the car was parked for nearly seven hours,” a parking attendant explained.

As dense smog engulfed the national capital region and the level of pollutants increased, the government Wednesday ordered a four-fold increase in parking fee. However, the move — aimed at discouraging Delhi residents from using private vehicles — received a mixed response. At Nehru Place, there are two other parking lots as well – a multi-level space managed by Eros and a ground-level parking lot along the road.

On Thursday afternoon, attendants at the DMRC parking lot claimed that the number of vehicles being parked has gone down by nearly 40-50 per cent overnight. “On a daily basis, over 200 cars are parked here. This number has come down by half today. The number of two-wheelers parked here has reduced by around 30 per cent. This is a 24×7 parking lot and there are about 20 parking attendants. But half of them haven’t turned up for work,” said Arvind Dubey, a parking attendant.

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On barricades and pillars across the DMRC parking lot, notices announce: “Looking at prevailing weather conditions, the government has decided to increase the parking rates by four times from November 9, 2017.”

Unlike Gill, Babita Arora who reached the DMRC parking lot on Thursday evening with her daughter, said, “If you own a car and have to use it, you shouldn’t mind paying some extra money. All of us are suffering because of pollution and if the government is taking measures to address this issue, people should not oppose it. I don’t mind paying the increased parking fee.”

At the SDMC parking lot across the road, an attendant said Thursday did not see a manifold increase in the number of vehicles. “Rates here have not increased. Because of the increase in DMRC parking charges, there are probably 20 more vehicles here than yesterday,” he said. Two guards at the multi-level parking lot maintained that their business was unaffected by the government’s measure. “The rates here are anyway higher than other lots,” the parking attendant said.

In most other parking lots across the city, vendors said they have not received any instruction to increase the parking fee. “Even when we get it, we’ll take some time to implement it since we need to print new slips with the revised rates,” said an attendant at a parking lot in Parade Ground.

(With Abhinav Rajput)

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