Smart Parking, haphazard planning

After many failed attempts to introduce pay and park system, the BBMP has now devised the Smart Park System for two-wheelers and four-wheelers in the city. With 62 lakh vehicles already on city’s narrow roads, Aknisree Karthik asks commuters and experts whether the idea to bring 85 roads under the new system is a better solution to haphazard parking than investing in multi-level parking.

It has failed not once but twice to introduce a "Pay and Park" system for the city, but the BBMP is once again opting for "Smart Parking" on Bengaluru’s roads, hoping, as always,  to curb haphazard parking and earn some revenue in the process.

Having identified 85 roads in the city  to allow  parking for a fee of between Rs 5 and Rs 15 for two-wheelers and Rs 15 and Rs 30 for cars, the civic agency has set a target of earning Rs 31 crore annually from the scheme, which it is introducing on a public-private partnership basis.Interestingly, this time round motorists will be able to book their parking slots on the roads in advance via a mobile app.

A city startup, Building Control Solutions India Pvt Ltd, which has been handling smart parking in cities in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, has bagged the tender. The proposal is expected to be tabled at the next BBMP council’s meeting and become a reality in a matter of two months, according to  official sources.

Once the BBMP council gives its approval,  the company will develop the needed infrastructure and the mobile app, and pay Rs 31.5 crore to the civic agency as annual rent for the parking space allotted to it, they reveal.

But not everyone is enthused at the idea of allowing parked cars to take up more space on the city's already  congested roads. The critics would rather the BBMP built the promised multi -level parking lots at the 18 locations identified for them across the city.

"The city really needs multi-level parking  and not  street parking, which will eat away at its already narrow roads," says Mr Sathya Lazaras, a fruit merchant. While Mr Srinivas Alavilli, coordinator of Citizens for Bengaluru, is all for  paid parking to make the BBMP some money,  he believes the “Smart Parking"  system is too complicated and likely to add more chaos on Bengaluru’s roads.

Batting for multi-level parking lots, he says, "Multi - level parking is always better. Such parking lots should come up wherever there is enough space for them  with private participation.”

If street parking has to be introduced it should be extremely expensive to  discourage people from opting for it and even bringing their cars to the Central Business District, in his view. The activist is, however, all praise for the current paid parking system on Brigade Road. “It  seems to work well, but  needs to be scaled up and the fee should be at least doubled to discourage people from parking on the road,” he suggests.

Ask a senior BBMP official about its multi-level parking plans and he says it did want  to build the lots at 18 locations, including Commercial Street, Double Road, Magrath Road, Malleswaram, near Russel Market, Dickenson Road, near the Hockey Stadium, and Gandhinagar , but came up against opposition, which forced it to re-think on them at many of the spots identified. “Also, we were not able to find suitable locations for some of these parking lots," he explains.But  multi- level parking lots have already come up on J C Road and Kempegowda Road and a similar parking facility will be ready by December in Gandhinagar, he reveals.

Smart parking will do more harm than good: Expert Srihari
It is not just activists or ordinary Benga lureans, who have reservations about the new  pay and park system planned by the BBMP for the city , but also traffic experts like Prof. M N Srihari, advisor to the state government on infrastructure.
Says he. "First let us go to the basics. Unlike roads in other cities, roads in Bengaluru are not wide, but  narrow. And with the addition of new vehicles every  day, the burden on the existing roads is multiplying. Street parking can only add to the chaos as it will occupy one- third of the road space and hamper the free flow of traffic,” he warns.

Pointing out that Bengaluru has over 69 lakh vehicles, he observes that cars make up most of the newly added vehicles to the city. “The number of cars in the city is growing at a rate of 22 per cent. And unlike two-wheelers it will be very difficult to accommodate them as they will eat up a lot of road space if the pay and park system is introduced,” Prof. Srihari warns, also noting that most countries opt for off-street parking and even Indian cities like Mumbai and Delhi have multi-level parking lots.

“Parking off the roads is the solution and this can be done with multi-level parking lots that can hold between 3,000 and 5,000 vehicles each. If the BBMP really want to augment its revenue,  it must build more of them on government land and ban street parking. For  one, this will keep roads freer and for another, it will fetch the BBMP more revenue,” he argues, claiming that the hurry with which the civic agency is trying to implement  street parking only shows it is doing it to please commercials units lining the roads.

“Going by the BBMP's building bylaws, the basements and ground floors of commercial buildings should be reserved for parking. But does anyone care about these rules? If this bylaw had been strictly enforced, the city would not be as congested as it is today due to haphazard parking on the streets,” he says.

Haphazard parking will severely affect flow of traffic: Mayor Sampath Raj
Q: When the BBMP  has failed twice with the pay and park scheme in the city, why is it introducing it again?
A: Haphazard parking in the city is affecting the free flow of traffic and the BBMP’s rightful revenue is being pocketed by unauthorised persons, who are exploiting people by collecting a parking fee from them. Also, the BBMP can increase its revenue by Rs 31 crore annually through  smart parking. If this idea is replicated across the city we can earn over Rs 500 crore.

Q: But haphazard parking on roads could have been checked if the BBMP had enforced its building bylaws, which call for reserving the basements and ground floors of buildings for parking.
A: Our officials are doing this. If they find the law is not being followed they cancel the sanctioned building plans and licenses of commercial units, which are making use of space that should have been reserved for parking.

Q: What happened to the idea of building multi-level parking lots across the city?
A: When we tried to build a multi- level parking facility in Commercial Street we were met with opposition. This happened in Ulsoor too. But we have built it wherever possible. We have one on JC Road and one on KG Road and a similar parking lot  will  open by December in Gandhinagar.  We are also exploring the idea of creating parking spaces below playgrounds.