Those traveling in private cars in Delhi may soon have to pay higher parking fees as the city government is planning a change in charges to encourage the use of public transport amid rising air pollution.
Speaking to the media, cabinet minister Gopal Rai said the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has ordered the enforcement of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) stage-II in Delhi-NCR from 8am on Tuesday to address the worsening air quality after the city’s daily average AQI crossed 300 on Monday.
“We have asked NDMC (New Delhi Municipal Council) and MCD (Municipal Corporation of Delhi) to discuss the options of increasing the parking charges in the areas under them or look for some other alternative with their officials. They have been asked to prepare a proposal for this,” Rai said.
The next step will be decided after the government receives the proposal.
Under the GRAP-II guidelines, authorities have been asked to enhance vehicle parking fees to discourage private transport.
Rai went on to say that while private cars will be discouraged, the government will slowly increase the frequency of public transport for the ease of public.
“The frequency of the metro is 4,200 across Delhi. From Wednesday, 40 additional trips will be made. The wait time for DTC is 15 minutes. This should be reduced too,” Rai said.
Also, to check the pollution from public and private buses coming from neighbouring states, Rai has written to the transport ministers of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, requesting a halt to the entry of diesel buses from these states into the national capital and look for some other alternative until the situation improves.
He also said that the parking charges were increased in 2023 too after GRAP-II was imposed in October. The fees was doubled in November 2023 and applied to both NDMC-operated parking lots and those managed by private concessionaires.
Even as the NDMC had increased its fee, the MCD, that has more than 400 paid parking sites across the city, did not increase the rates.
The last time the MCD increased parking rates was in 2017 for just a week. The rates were increased by four times.
As per the GRAP orders, the public has been urged to use public transport and minimise use of personal vehicles. Also, people have been asked to use technology and take less congested routes, even if slightly longer.
The order also directed that adequate personnel be deployed at intersections and traffic congestion points for smooth flow of traffic.
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