Facing ire, MMRDA reopens BKC parking lots

Mumbai: After facing flak from office-goers over the shutting down of parking lots overnight at the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC), the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) on Friday reopened the parking lots for office-goers. Till a new contractor is appointed by the MMRDA, motorists will be able to park their vehicles for free. The MMRDA has also assured that the contractors would be appointed on urgent basis. “The bids were floated earlier in January, however, no response was received. Now, we have floated bids again on January 31 and we expect to appoint a new contractor soon,” said a senior MMRDA official.

Vivek Vasudev, a banker, working at BKC said that he came to know that MMRDA has reopened the parking lots for two-wheelers and four-wheelers on Friday. “It has come as a huge relief as there are thousands of vehicles that enter BKC on a daily basis,” Mr Vasudev said.

Thousands of office-goers ply to BKC in their vehicles, as the commercial hub has many leading national and international offices in it. Several office-goers from BKC on Wednesday had started an online campaign after the parking lots were abruptly closed down on February 1 and they were forced to park their vehicles haphazardly on roads and footpaths.

Dilip Kawathkar, joint project director, MMRDA, said, “It was later decided that until a new contractor is appointed motorists should be allowed to park their vehicles in the existing parking lots owned by MMRDA for free. Thereafter, regular charges would be levied.” The MMRDA operates several parking lots in total at BKC, of which three parking lots were shut having capacity of around 2,000 two wheelers and 1,000 four wheelers.