Mumbai: Crackdown begins on illegal parking

MUMBAI: The traffic police have started cracking down on unauthorised parking outside 13 city malls under the Motor Vehicles Act. Police held meetings with mall representatives and asked them to permit non-customers to park on premises on weekdays and charge them the same rates as customers, in line with BMC’s plans.

Haphazard parking outside malls is common in the city and is one of the key causes of congestion.

“No-parking notifications were issued to 13 malls between July and September. The process of identifying limits is on. But means of public transport within the limits, such as bus, auto and taxi stands, will not be touched,” said joint commissioner, traffic, Madhukar Pandey. The malls include CR-II at Nariman Point, R City at Ghatkopar , Oberoi mall at Goregaon, Hub at Goregaon, Atria at Worli , Infinity at Andheri, City Centre at Nagpada, Nakshatra at Dadar, and Palladium at Lower Parel, police said. “We will issue no-parking notifications to another 8-10 malls shortly,” Pandey said.

As per RTO data, 36 lakh vehicles were registered in Mumbai as of 2018. Available parking space for cars, including on-street pay-andpark stretches, public parking lots, amenity parking lots and surface parking is 34,466 equivalent car park spaces.

“The occupancy of mall parking lots is around 40% on weekdays. There are nearly 100 malls in the city. While their parking lots are under utilised, roads outside are crammed with double parking,” an officer said.