In a first, Bengaluru’s roads will be classified into commercial and residential streets to bring in a new parking regime which seeks to end the era of free parking in the city that has led to vehicular congestion.
In its approval order dated February 2, the state government has told the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) to prepare area-level parking plans. The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is given the mandate of implementing it.
The policy is a shadow of its former version with rules diluted. For example, the draft policy of March 2020 sought a full ban on roads less than 9 metres wide and where allowed, a permit that costs up to Rs 50,000 was suggested. The approved policy limits the ban to places around multi-level parking lots and reduces the permit cost to a maximum of Rs 5,000.
Depending on the area, the price of the on-street parking will be at least 1.5 to 3 times higher than off-street parking (in multi-level parking lots).
DULT commissioner V Manjula, however, noted that the initiative itself is a major step forward in changing the mindset of the public with regard to the use of the public property for parking that has been taken for granted for decades.
The first step, she said, was preparing the area-level parking management plans which involve assessing the parking demand and the available inventory. This involves classifying on-street parking into commercial (with more than 30% non-residential establishments) and residential.