No parking policy for Mumbai despite Bombay HC rap

Mumbai: The inability of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to address the parking problems in the city continues despite the Bombay high court directing the civic body to frame a policy on it. In recent hearings on the issue, the court had directed the BMC to frame a policy at the start of the year, but nothing has come of it. In fact, Chief Justice of the Bombay high court Dr Manjula Chellur had chided the BMC for dragging its feet and not having a comprehensive policy to curb people from parking their two- and four-wheelers wherever they wish, leading to blocking of access to schools, hospitals and railway stations.

However, counsels for the BMC said on Saturday that the civic body has started implementing a pay and park policy on a pilot basis in A Ward, which comprises Colaba. The counsels said that the civic body and will be submitting the outcome of the policy to the high court when the petition comes up for hearing later this month.

While hearing a public interest litigation filed by activist Bhagwanji Rayani, complaining of instances of illegal parking in south Mumbai and the western suburbs, the Chief Justice while citing the example of Malabar Hill, had said, “In the night, on both sides of the road, cars are parked like a necklace, making the roads narrower. In Bombay after five years, you won’t have space to go anywhere. This is a very serious issue. Even the footpaths have been taken over by hawkers.”

Justice G.S. Kulkarni had taken pains to elucidate the problem and said, “The main problem is that you (BMC) have no comprehensive policy over this issue. You have kept nothing in place and that is the reason the people are parking their vehicles wherever they feel like, irrespective of the fact whether it is a police station or a bus stand.”

The court had also received a submission by another petitioner Prashant Polekar wherein he had asked that only those persons who already had parking space be allowed to own cars. He said this would ensure that parking and double parking on roads was curbed. The court comprising of Justices V.M. Kanade and Swapna Joshi had suggested using space under flyovers for parking but the suggestion was shot down after the government informed the court that it feared that the flyovers could become targets of sabotage.