Chandigarh Administration to revisit parking policy

Tribune News Service

Dushyant Singh Pundir

Chandigarh, April 14

Unable to implement the parking policy, the UT Administration has decided to revise the policy to make it more effective.

After years of deliberations, the Administration had notified the parking policy in December 2020, but failed to implement it successfully. An official said the Urban Planning Department had been directed to improve the policy so that it could be implemented.

The policy was notified with an aim to address the chaotic parking conditions in the city and to encourage the shift from the use of personal vehicles to the public transport.

As per the policy, all government offices, PSUs, industrial and IT companies with more than 50 employees were to ply staff buses to discourage the use of personal vehicles.

For public participation, the Market Welfare Associations (MWAs) were to be actively involved for parking management in commercial areas and members of the residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) were to enforce all parking laws, including pedestrian and cyclists’ right of way, instead of parking cars on footpaths. Parking on footpaths was to be strictly prohibited.

A lane had to be earmarked for unhindered movement of emergency vehicles — ambulance, fire engines and police vehicles - in all streets. Similarly, an emergency lane had to be marked in all commercial areas as recommended by the Chief Fire Officer.

Prioritising the pick-and-drop facility over parking facilities, the new policy stated that in areas where adequate parking space was not available, on-street parking on a payment basis must be introduced at a reasonable safe distance from footpaths or cycle tracks.

The policy agreed to the creation of community parking for night in each sub-sector by using neighborhood commercial and institutional parking lots. A provision for two gates in plotted development in residential areas was to be strictly adhered to for providing maximum parking within the plotted premises.

The policy stated that encroachment by vendors must be removed and they should be shifted to their designated locations by enforcement agencies so as to free the pedestrian areas, parking areas and other such places.

In all no-parking zones, only boarding-alighting was to be permitted. Halting of vehicle for more than five minutes in the no-parking zone with the driver sitting in the vehicle was not to be permitted and it was to be treated as a violation of the no-parking regulation. Stopping vehicles at bus stops and on turnings, even for boarding-alighting purposes, was not to be permitted.

All colleges and universities located in the city were to be advised to discourage the use of four-wheelers among students either by increasing the user fee of the vehicles or by banning them completely.

Was notified in 2020

After years of deliberations, the Administration had notified the parking policy in December 2020, but failed to implement it successfully. An official said the Urban Planning Department had been directed to improve the policy so that it could be implemented.

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