Karnataka govt may veto vehicle purchases if buyers lack parking space in Bengaluru

Pushing for citizen accountability in resolving Bengaluru’s parking woes, a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday explored the possibility of denying permission for consumers to buy a new vehicle if they fail to furnish proof of parking space in their residence.

Yediyurappa reviewed the proposed Parking Policy 2.0 for Bengaluru, drafted by the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT).

Officials opined that a new parking policy was essential for the city as it has seen a rapid increase in new vehicles in recent years. Uncontrolled parking in public spaces is contributing to traffic congestion, they said. The new parking policy, which has 10 focus areas, including paid parking, private parking management and organised parking systems among others, looks at a technology-powered parking monitoring in the city.

BDA chairperson S R Viswanath said they had pushed for insistence on proof of parking before a citizen can be allowed to buy a new vehicle. “People park on both sides of the road. Some vehicles are not taken out for days together and pourakarmikas find it difficult to sweep streets because of that. We have to take a tough stance on the parking problem in the city,” he said.

However, some senior officials who attended the meeting expressed concerns about making such a rule mandatory and it was decided to examine legal possibilities for the same.

According to a statement, Yediyurappa directed Chief Secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar to discuss the recommendations with senior officials, and review and revise the Parking Policy 2.0 draft before bringing it to the Cabinet. Earlier this year, the DULT had invited objections from the public to the draft policy.

The policy talks about proof of parking for vehicles registered or transferred after the policy is in place. A city-wide parking inventory with unique IDs assigned to each parking space will be prepared and proof of parking will be made mandatory to purchase a vehicle or while registering new vehicles or transferring ownership of registered vehicles, the policy recommends.

The meeting discussed a plan to utilise neighbourhood vacant sites as parking spaces, which the site owners can monetise, Viswanath said.

“We even discussed using vacant government land. Also, a ban on parking within a one-km radius of a multi-level parking facility was proposed,” he said.

Viswanath added that the smart parking facility, currently available on select roads, would be extended across the city.