Why parking is a nightmare in Bengaluru

Bengaluru’s space jam

Bengaluru: When Ramesh, a resident of Srirampuram in Bengaluru, started building his dream home in the 1990s, he had only a two-wheeler, and the city did not have the concept of parking. 

“Roads were enough to park two-wheelers; no one even went for basement parking. An extra floor would be an extra expense for us,” he says, explaining why his building lacks parking.

Today, his son struggles to find parking for his car, and the family is moving to an apartment with car parking. This is the story of most of the old areas in the core areas of Bengaluru.

Bengaluru has seen an exponential rise in vehicle ownership since 2000. According to estimates, the city has nearly a crore registered private vehicles. Even though 75 per cent of them are two-wheelers, close to 25 lakh cars are enough to clog the roads with careless parking.

Parking was not considered, even for commercial buildings, schools and hospitals back then. As a result, every street in the city suffers today. 

“In Koramangala, parking seems to occur only in residential lanes, particularly those close to commercial areas where bars, pubs and restaurants have valet parking services. They seem to think they can park vehicles anywhere in residential areas,” says Nithin Seshadri, a resident of Koramangala.

People who drive to Gandhi Bazaar and nearby areas in Basavanagudi park their vehicles in nearby residential areas. Satyalaxmi Rao, a resident of Basavanagudi, explains how this affects her area. 

“We cannot even take out our vehicles when someone parks in front of our gates. Many residents who have garages are now parking their own vehicles on the roadside in order to stop others from parking.”

In June, the Karnataka High Court ruled that using empty plots for parking and collecting a fee is illegal. If followed strictly, this will reduce parking space. However, residents continue to use empty plots for parking in most areas. 

Thus, the parking problem is a universal issue haunting the city. While newer buildings are making provisions for parking, old areas and buildings will remain a problem, making it necessary to develop an action plan for parking.

Pay-and-park schemes

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) reintroduced the pay-and-park scheme in central business districts (CBDs) and commercial hubs like Mahatma Gandhi Road, Koramangala, and Indiranagar. These schemes aimed to regulate on-street parking and generate revenue for parking infrastructure development. Pilots on sensors and IoT-based and mobile app-based parking were conducted.

However, the implementation faced public backlash over pricing, residents’ unwillingness to pay, enforcement challenges, and accusations of favouritism in contractor selection. Because of such issues, the pay-and-park facilities introduced in the central business district (CBD) area were eliminated.

Parking reforms often faced resistance from residents, businesses, and political groups. For instance:

- Residents opposed paid parking schemes in neighbourhoods.

- Businesses argued that parking fees deterred customers.

- Political interference delayed enforcement and project approvals.

“We need to bring back paid parking in CBD. It was working well, and people got used to paid parking. BBMP should find a new vendor. No global city offers free parking, and even malls and some offices charge for parking. All IT parks need to start charging for parking,” says a mobility expert preferring anonymity.

The Bengaluru Traffic Police has increased fines for illegal parking under the amended Motor Vehicles Act (2019). Dedicated towing squads and digital challan systems enhanced enforcement, although public compliance remained challenging.

“They do come and penalise illegally parked vehicles most of the time. But there are times when they say they are unable to find the address of a particular vehicle or locate the number of the vehicle in their system,” says Satyalaxmi Rao.

Several multi-level parking facilities were proposed under public-private partnerships (PPPs), including Freedom Park, Shivajinagar, and Gandhi Bazaar. While some projects materialised, many suffered delays due to land acquisition issues, local opposition, and cost overruns. Those that materialised are not seeing optimal usage.

The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) collaborated with BBMP to develop parking near metro stations. Park-and-ride services were introduced to reduce dependency on private vehicles for last-mile connectivity. However, the uptake was limited due to inadequate facilities and poor awareness campaigns.

Another issue transport experts find is that BMRCL’s policy is not aligned with BBMP’s policy. “It aims to increase BMRCL’s own parking fee revenue. It does not focus on the larger picture of the city’s parking systems,” says an expert who prefers anonymity. 

Parking Policy 2.0

The city has tried to implement various parking regulations in vain. Four years since the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) drafted Parking Policy 2.0 in December 2020, the policy exists on paper, but its systematic implementation has yet to happen.

This policy is supposed to be the guidebook governing how city streets are used for parking. It proposes many steps to fix the parking issue. 

The policy proposes the preparation of area parking plans. DULT, Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) are supposed to chalk out parking plans for every area. The plans should have all the details, including on-street and off-street parking facilities, signage, parking limits and design standards, and be posted for public consultation. They should be revised every two to three years.

The policy suggests providing off-street parking areas in transit hubs and crowded areas and specifies a framework for collecting parking fees. Another recommendation is strictly regulating on-street parking in residential areas, even for residents.

“In the long term, Bengaluru must regulate all on-street parking in residential areas and reclaim much of this space for the common public good. The burden of providing parking space for personal vehicles should be on the vehicle owner and not the civic agency,” it points out.

The policy also touches upon the regulation of transport vehicle parking. Time-based restrictions for parking or loading/unloading freight vehicles within the city limits, setting up truck terminals at the city periphery, and shifting strategic wholesale markets to other peripheral locations to decongest the city centre are some of the issues the policy addresses. It has rules for parking inter-state buses, school vehicles and construction vehicles. 

‘Smart parking policy on the anvil’

According to officials, the policy’s implementation has many limitations. Some issues are resistance from stakeholders, limited scope for infrastructure development, especially in the CBD areas, enforcement issues, and inequitable access, favouring affluent vehicle owners while neglecting pedestrians and public transport users. Insufficient attention to footpaths and non-motorised transport infrastructure remained a concern for activists and citizens.

“A smart parking policy will be implemented. We have called for tender thrice, but there has been no response, says B S Prahlad, chief engineer at BBMP.

“There’s a thought that on-street parking should be completely banned. Many stakeholders oppose this. We are working with DULT to tweak and implement the policy,” Prahlad adds.

Paid parking on M G Road eats into footpath space while unpaid parking eats into the road. (Below) Parking on footpath.

Sonal Shah, Executive Director of Delhi-based Centre for Sustainable and Equitable Cities, says the requirement in the draft request for proposal (RFP - draft tender document) her team analysed imposed many conditions on the bidders. 

“It was capex-heavy on the operators. It was not utilising the updated technology. For example, anything from variable messaging typically used for off-street parking, parking metres, and other technology would not be necessary for street parking. It can be done using simple mobile phone-based technology,” she explains. This could have repelled bidders, she explains.

She says the RFP needed evaluation criteria and customer satisfaction measurement tools.

“Bengaluru’s parking policy is progressive and forward-looking; it looks at parking as a demand management system. But the challenge will lie in its implementation. We need to focus on how to operationalise it instead of looking to revise it,” says Sonal.

Experts feel Bengaluru’s parking policy must align with broader urban mobility goals, such as a common mobility plan, full-scale implementation, dynamic pricing and integration with public transport, enhancing non-motorized transport, expanding smart parking and better coordination among agencies.