Chennai’s state housing and urban development department has accepted the parking policy proposal and directed the authority to proceed with its implementation.
The broad contours of the parking policy are as follows:
i) Car buyers must have at least one off-street parking space to register a vehicle and must furnish proof of this space.
ii) To facilitate the creation of parking spaces, the authority is committed to establishing residential parking permits on broad public roads.
iii) The authority has also recommended revising the Tamil Nadu Combined Building Rules to introduce shared public parking in private buildings, malls, and gated communities in exchange for a fee.
Furthermore, homes or private establishments that do not share their parking spaces for shared public parking may be required to pay a parking development fee, which the authority says will be invested in public transport, walking, and cycling initiatives.
However, the implementation of such a policy will heavily depend on the availability or creation of parking slots. Data from local authorities indicate that the city has only about 10,000 to 14,000 public parking slots, many of which remain in various stages of partial use or disuse. As of 2020, however, the city had a total of 54 lakh registered vehicles. That presents a significant gap that will need to be addressed.
One thing is certain—the city’s Metropolitan Transport Authority is keen on brainstorming ways to eliminate uncontrolled public parking and, hopefully, succeeding in the effort.
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(Edited by : Anand Singha)
