Baishali Adak | Posted by Amit Vasudev

A move by authorities to raise vehicle parking charges in the city to tackle mounting air pollution has prompted street fights, people plonking their cars on the roads and other forms of chaos.

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) – owner of 92 major parking lots in posh colonies and markets like Nehru Place, Bhikaji Cama Place and Saket – has reported the unhappy situation to the Delhi government. The hike in fees was one of the key measures suggested by the Supreme Court-mandated expert body EPCA on controlling pollution.

“Though done absolutely in good faith, it has had the opposite effect – increasing congestion, pollution and fights on the road,” said a senior official of the corporation, requesting anonymity. Members of the SDMC’s parking cell cited many reasons for this. The first was a “serious contractual dispute” created between them and the 15-17 private concessionaires employed by the civic body to levy parking charges, with the EPCA order coming suddenly.

“We award parking lots to private parking fee collection companies on the basis of who shares the maximum revenue with us, termed the ‘monthly license fee.’ When the parking fee went up from Rs 20 to Rs 80 per hour, anticipating fewer car owners coming to their parking lots and lesser money entering their coffers, the concessionaires immediately refused to abide by the EPCA orders,” said an official. “In a fit of anger, many even suggested, ‘why not shut the parking lots for a week completely?’ We had to sit with them for three hours to convince them to go along.”

The Graded Response Action Plan formulated by the EPCA recommends quadrupling of the parking fee when air quality in the city reaches the ‘very poor’ level, meaning PM2.5 going up to 121 ug/m3 or PM10 scaling the 351 ug/m3 mark. On November 8, the PM 2.5 levels in the city shot up to 640 ug/m3, creating a “super emergency” situation.

This is not the first time a pollution-control measure has created operational difficulties for the corporations which outsource many functions.

In January last year, the SC allowed the three MCDs’ toll tax collection concessionaire, SMYR Consortium LLP, to exit as it refused to levy an environment tax on trucks, citing loss of revenue. The second hurdle created by the EPCA order was the need to make emergency changes in the software of all parking ticket generation machines, as they were programmed to charge Rs 20 per hour only.

“It could not be done in all places as the order letter from the lieutenant governor came on November 8 and had to be implemented on the 9th,” said an officer.

“As a result, many parking attendants went back to giving handmade tickets, which made car owners, unaware of the court order, suspicious of being fleeced and leading to nasty fights on the road. One female car driver in Lajpat Nagar tore the shirt of a parking attendant besides refusing to pay anything.”

Most importantly, officers pointed out, many motorists simply began parking their cars anywhere instead of the authorised SDMC parking lots, creating a nightmare for the traffic police.

One example cited was how drivers started shunning the Greater Kailash M and N Block parking lots of SDMC and instead left their vehicles in front of the Archana Shopping Complex, leading to traffic flowing in the opposite direction and daily jams.

Many did this with the confidence that if people park their cars at a wrong spot ‘en masse,’ the traffic department won’t be able to tow away so many of them. “Instead of trying to discourage private car usage, we should make a policy whereby long hours of car parking are charged heavily. For instance, the first hour of parking can stay at Rs 20, but after three hours, it can be made Rs 100 and more after that,” a senior official of the parking department suggested.

“Currently, the car parking charge caps at `100 only, so many treat the roadsides as car junkyards. Car bazaars come up here and mechanics also set up shop.”