Locals can park at 13 Mumbai malls

MUMBAI: Parking for locals and visitors will be permitted inside 13 malls across the city, but the areas outside will be strict no-parking zones according to a plan chalked out by BMC and the new Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA) on Saturday. Charges will be reasonable.
This is one of the major decisions of the recently formed 11-member MPA headed by former bureaucrat Gautam Chatterjee, who is also chairman of MahaRERA.MPA has been created under the city's new development plan regulation. The decision to give it legal status is pending with the government. Besides the chairman, MPA members include the joint police commissioner (traffic), BMC chief engineers (road and traffic) director IT, transport secretary, along with three ex-officio members, BEST's general manager and two experts.
Officials said they collected data from malls after several meetings to address concerns. MPA is waiting for reduced rate charts from malls for daytime and night parking. Once the scheme is implemented, BMC will impose heavy penalties on vehicles parked on roads, in a 100-metre radius from a mall.
Earlier, MPA opened up BEST bus depots for parking of private buses. BMC had also declared 100 metres around 29 public parking lots as no-parking zones.
Stretches along five arterial roads in different parts of the city too were made no-parking zones. BMC and MPA managed to bring some discipline among motorists in such areas. Chatterjee said, "We want to provide off-street (alternative) parking space. It involves two parts: to create awareness among people about no-parking areas, and enforcing the policy." Officials said violations will invite a penalty of Rs 10,000 per car.
MPA is studying street parking patterns to make the policy as effective as possible. "The primary focus remains decongesting Mumbai's roads and encouraging off-street parking. What we will see in the months to come through the MPA initiatives is a sustained effort in making commuting less stressful," said Shishir Joshi, founder Project Mumbai and advisory member of MPA.