BMC standing advisory group gets arrangement free from Mumbai Parking Authority

The BMC Standing Committee last week grand permission to the formation of the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA). MPA is an independent body established following the recommendations of the Development Control and Promotion Regulation (2034) to regulate street and off-street parking in the city. Ramanath Hai, a bureaucrat, has been appointed as an advisor to the MPA. BMC has appointed the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TIS) as a consulting agency to take inputs from city planners, traffic experts, and local government experts to assist the MPA in its operations.

The MPA suggests examining how parking can be provided as part of a city. Public infrastructure to provide convenient, efficient, safe, and affordable parking in the city with reasonable control over parking in public places. It also envisages introducing parking management strategies based on land use categories, road characteristics, and congestion through zoning to facilitate contextual variable pricing, park-only streets, no parking, pedestrian-only zones, etc.

MPA will create a digital GIS map for all and develop parking spaces, parking controls, and SOPs for managing parking spaces. As the DCPR mandated the creation of the MPA, the preparation process for the MPA’s operation began from 2019 to 2020. However, in the case of the epidemic, the project was given a break in March 2020. Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) p. Velrasu, officials said. Officials said the MPA has 9 key functions, such as planning, regulating, penalizing, evicting, and introducing new ideas, and legally setting up MPAs in BMC rules to provide comprehensive ward-wise planning and parking management guidelines covering all aspects related to parking. Other objectives include inspection by pilots, Mumbai parking policy, pricing for successful parking management, and assignment of parking marshals to enforce with the traffic police.