The simple act of trying to park your vehicle in the National Capital Region can get you involved in a major fight. A slight provocation over parking space makes city residents go into a hard rage. 'Parking rage' is a prevalent phenomenon and a big concern in the capital.
“We get many cases regarding parking issues every day. And we get these mostly from unauthorised colonies in Delhi. Also, non-availability of parking areas in markets is among the prime issues for these types of cases. However, this problem is not a hot issue in planned colonies and societies.” Madhur Verma, Spokesperson for Delhi police, says.
On Monday, tension prevailed in Delhi's Chawri Bazaar area after a fight over parking took a communal turn and a temple was vandalised in the locality.
The trouble began when Aas Mohammad parked his vehicle outside a building, which a resident, Sanjeev Gupta, who runs an eatery stall there, found objectionable. As Aas was called for questioning, a group demanded his release outside the police station; the group later attacked a temple in the neigbourhood and vandalised statues.
Delhi is known for being one of the most congested cities in India. Hundreds of vehicles are added daily and it has worsened the already overcrowded roads of the city. This is not the first time Delhi has experienced this kind of situation, as, in January, a 23-year-old man was murdered in North Delhi over a parking dispute.
In April last year, a similar row between two businessmen-brothers in Model Town resulted in the death of three members of the family.
“It is insane how urbanisation has initiated chaotic situations. While you have huge earnings, the cost of living and the standard of living is abysmal. I have been living in the city for over a decade and driving for at least half of it. As if traffic in the city was not temper-testing enough, my parking cost now supersedes my fuel cost,” expresses Ritika Sidhwani, a corporate employee.
However, in March, the Supreme Court of India asked the stakeholders, including the Environment Pollution Control Authority, to deliberate on the issue to find the best possible mechanism to deal with this problem. The apex court asked people to avoid parking vehicles on roads as it may lead to a law and order issue.
Taking about the issue, an architect, Nitesh Salwan, explained to us why all these problems occur. “The issue of parking is one of the major concerns for any urban settlement, and Delhi has its own problems with the same. The planning of most neighbourhoods in Delhi follows a typical pattern of row houses, which are accessible through tertiary streets. When these were planned decades ago, vehicles; four-wheelers, in particular, used to be a luxury, and the neighborhoods were not designed to accommodate an exponential rise in their numbers.”
“Firstly, people tend to park their vehicles at a location within their visibility, which, in most cases, is right in front of their houses. In such a situation, a two-way driveway effectively gets reduced to a single lane with cars parked on both sides, which leads to congestion of the streets. This means that parked vehicles block the space that should have been available for pedestrians to walk, and the space that remains has constantly moving traffic. Localities of Delhi like Rajouri Garden, Patel Nagar, and Rajendra Nagar are a few examples of this.”
Another major issue marked by Nitesh is that the tensions that develop between neighbours over parking spaces often leading to heated arguments, and, in some cases, even violence. Some neighbourhoods in the more affordable circles of the city, West Delhi's Subhash Nagar for instance, end up parking their vehicles in public parks, thus taking away the recreational space of the residents.
“In the more congested parts of the city like Okhla or Paharganj, where streets are fairly narrow and parking space is predominantly scarce, people have to park their vehicles at far-off unsecured spots. This leads to numerous cases of thefts and vandalism. Moreover, the entire scenario affects the overall landscape of the city, which is usually overlooked by the common folk,” Nitesh adds. “While the epicentre of the problem is one: an ever-increasing number of cars, the solution can only be sought by attempting more than one actions and varying in scales. For instance, the mandatory stilt floor in all new constructions is an effective way to manage the parking crisis. The local administrative bodies could also identify larger plots of land in every block to develop multi-story parking-cum-recreational establishments to deal with the issue,” he Concluded.
