MCD Civic Center | photo credit: file photo
More than three years after the capital’s parking policy was notified, areas under the erstwhile East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) are yet to receive their Parking Area Management Plan (PAMP).
Last year, senior EDMC officials had said that it was in the process of hiring a private agency to help it in surveying the PAMP.
With a view to providing solutions to prevent overcrowding and haphazard parking, the Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Places Rules 2019 required the erstwhile three municipal bodies to develop plans for areas under their jurisdiction.
Last Wednesday, senior officials of the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) said that the survey would be conducted soon, adding that the delay was due to the poor financial condition of the erstwhile civic body.
“The timeline has not been decided yet and some of the parking development funds will be used for the exercise. A senior MCD official said, EDMC was going through severe financial crisis and this was the main reason for the delay.
BS Vohra, who heads the East Delhi-based Resident Welfare Association (RWA), said the delay in conducting the survey is a sign of neglect towards the growing issues of overcrowding and paucity of parking space.
“We want area plans to be made, because they [MCD] At least be able to identify available land to build parking or implement other solutions. Even now, the civic body neither has much money, nor land or willingness to conduct the survey,” he said.
Prior to the merger of the three erstwhile civic bodies, the North Delhi Municipal Corporation and the EDMC were grappling with their poor finances, which hampered their daily functioning, with little or no funds for new development works, and frequent staffing. Strikes led by unpaid wages.