Why is the BMC constructing a multi-level automated parking lot at the heritage precinct of Flora Fountain

The parking lot is being built on an open land parcel at Flora Fountain adjoining the Apsara Pen Mart. This area is also a heritage precinct comprising several art deco- and gothic-styled buildings around the periphery as well as the fountain. The facility will have four underground levels that will be able to accommodate 194 vehicles.

The surface area above will act as a holding area. There will be an automated platform or lift in the holding area where one will have to park the car initially. Following this, the platform will go down and take the vehicle safely to a specific parking pitch in one of the four levels.

The existing plot has a 12 metre access road on the western side and another 7 metre access road on the eastern side. The vehicles will enter the facility from the eastern side and exit on the western side. The retrieval time for vehicles in the multi-level car parking system will be around three minutes.

How will it help the city?

The Hutatma Chowk area is surrounded by several important government and commercial buildings including the Bombay High Court (HC) as well as headquarters of the State Bank of India (SBI) and other financial institutions. At present, there is no car parking facility available in this place, so most people park their vehicles on the roads.

This leads to a reduction of the road space, resulting in vehicular congestion during the day. The main purpose of constructing this parking lot is to take the parked vehicles off the road so that traffic can flow smoothly on the road.

Why a robotic parking lot?

In Mumbai, land parcels for creating parking units are usually reserved in the BMC’s development plan 2034 road map. However, with the increase in vehicular ownership in Mumbai, reservation of plots for gardens and open spaces is being changed to make parking facilities. Civic officials said that in a space-starved city like Mumbai, it’s much more convenient to have these kinds of facilities since they are vertical in shape.

“Setting up a horizontal conventional parking lot would require larger parcels of land. While these kinds of vertical facilities could be set up on much smaller land parcels. These facilities are pretty common in the western countries and we have all the necessary facilities to operate and maintain them,” a civic official told The Indian Express.

“At present, there is a dearth of open spaces in Mumbai, therefore, changing the reservation of the existing gardens and parks for making them into parking lots would be unfair. At the same time, vehicular density is increasing, and if we don’t find a parking solution, then the roads will become occupied with illegal parking. Therefore, setting up these kinds of facilities is the only way forward,” the official added.