New Delhi: At its meeting on Wednesday, New Delhi Municipal Council agreed to engage an expert agency for implementing an intelligent integrated parking system. This decision comes approximately four months after the contracts of the previous concessionaires of the 152 parking facilities lapsed.
NDMC has been experiencing significant operational challenges, with no concessionaire for 99 for four months. In fact, 39 parking lots have remained unmanaged for five years. To maintain operations, the civic body even deployed staff from the sanitation, water supply, electricity and some other departments. These temporary arrangements, however, resulted in financial losses and operational inefficiencies because the personnel lacked the expertise in parking management and vehicle placement, as TOI reported in Aug.
“We have approved inviting an agency to design, develop, supply, implement, operate and maintain the intelligent integrated parking system,” said NDMC vice-chairman Kuljeet Chahal. “The proposal will cover all 152 parking sites for a term of 10 years, including three months needed for logistics. The proposal will also see a revision in the parking charges in NDMC areas.”
Last week, after presenting the budget for 2025-26, chairman Keshav Chandra said the civic body took a serious view of the delay in appointing a new contractor for running the parking lots and would ensure the project was implemented “efficiently and effectively soon”.
Software will be developed to detail manpower engaged at each parking lot, incoming and outgoing vehicle flow, daily collections, online payment, occupancy and capacity at each parking lot. It will also facilitate incorporation of FASTag for collection of fees. “During the meeting, a suggestion was made to add a provision for FASTag to eliminate manual intervention in the system,” explained an official.
The selected agency will pay NDMC either Rs 7 crore per month or 50% of the parking collections every month. It will run the parking lots in market areas from 8am to 12 midnight and in non-market areas from 8am to 11pm. “NDMC reserves the right to ask the agency to operate any parking lot beyond the scheduled closing hours anywhere if required,” said Chahal. The meeting also decided to evaluate or increase the parking charges pursuant to the National Urban Transport Policy (NUTP) and Framework for Parking Management Area Plan for Delhi.
In addition, the meeting approved an ‘Urban Forum’ for advising NDMC on urban issues like design, transport, streetscaping, architecture, etc. “There is also a need to address periodic flooding, electrical problems and old sewerage networks. The Urban Forum, which will include professionals, will give suggestions to NDMC on all these aspects,” said Chahal.
Approval for the operation, repair and maintenance of the remaining 56 public or community centres on the PPP Model for a period of eight years, engagement of 12 water tankers, procurement of 28 electrical vehicles for office use, allocation of more funds for the completion of a hi-tech library at Mandir Marg and hiring a new concessionaire for the collection and transportation of solid waste were among other matters cleared in the meeting.
