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Experts to help overcome parking problems in city
8-Member Panel appointed to set up multi-level parking lots.....Sandeep Ashar Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is taking no chances for its iconic project of setting up multi-level mechanised parking lots at eight locations in the city.
The civic body has appointed a team of parking, transport and traffic experts to help it select the best technology and the operators for the parking lots.
Two among the eight automated multi-level parking lots will be underground and are proposed to come up at Regal junction and Crawford market in the island city. The remaining six will be overground and have been planned in suburban areas. Three of them have been proposed along the Adi Shankaracharya Marg at Powai, whereas one parking lot is slated to come up at Borivili, Kurla, and Chandivili each.
Dr Irmscher Ilja, a German expert who possesses a doctorate in planning parking spaces and facilities, is on the technical panel. The eight-member panel also includes renowned transport expert Ashok Datar and an IIT expert, civic officials told DNA. Sanjay Barve, joint commissioner of police (traffic), additional municipal commissioner RA Rajeev and three senior officials from concerned civic departments are the other members.
The panel will evaluate proposals received from private parties and consortiums for technical competence. Incidentally, the recessionary trend, which has hampered many infrastructure projects, has not affected the response for the parking project. Top developers and technology providers, including Gammon India, Zoom Developers, Simplex India, have bid for setting up the parking lots.
The private firms will be required to set up these parking spaces on build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis for a 30-year period. "We have received at least three applications for each of the sites," a source said. The technical scrutiny is expected to be completed by June 15.
According to BMC estimates, there are already 14 lakh vehicles in Mumbai, with 200 new ones being registered daily. The public parking lots in existence presently can accommodate only 8,000 odd cars. This has led to unplanned parking along roadsides.
In the last few years, the BMC has proposed various projects to overcome the parking space crunch. FSI incentives are being offered to developers and societies to set up multi-storey public parking lots on plots owned by them. Civic officials said that so far 59 such proposals have been received.
The BMC has also been promoting the concept of setting up community car parks.
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