Grap: Parking fee hike yet to be implemented

Authorities in the Capital are yet to increase parking fees, a key element of Stage 2 of the Graded Response Action Plan (Grap) that came into force on Saturday. Stage 2 of the antipollution plan allows civic agencies to charge motorists more for public parking to curb the use of private vehicles as air quality in the region worsens.

-  Paras Singh

A senior official of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) associated with parking management said that the civic body would need approval from the House of councillors to hike the parking fee. The official added that undertaking measures under Stage 2 assumes a sense of urgency when the air quality deteriorates, but that an actual change in parking norms requires layers of execution on the ground.

“These are only the early stages of the pollution season setting in and the directions are under consideration. We cannot directly increase the parking charges across the city. This is a policy decision that needs approval from the House of councillors. We are planning to put forward a preamble in this regard in the meeting on Friday. The problem is that the air quality keeps on fluctuating while these decisions need several steps for execution on the ground,” the official said while clarifying that the quantum of the hike has also not been decided yet.

Parking fee hikes are a fraught issue in the national capital, and rates have been unchanged in the city since November 2017, when MCD put in place a four-times increase under Grap. The hike remained in effect for just seven days — between November 9 and 16 — but led to a muddle of chaos, officials said, after which it was never enforced again.