Multilevel parking lots hit by multitude of issues

With at least eight new multilevel parking lots expected to be inaugurated in Delhi over the next six months, HT did a spot check of six of the 17 existing ones in south, central, and north Delhi and found that they were plagued with a range of problems that significantly impeded not just their useability and utility.

- Paras Singh

From the reluctance of vehicle owners to park there, water seepage in underground spaces to flawed ramps and non-functional safety systems, many of these multi-crore projects are in urgent need of attention. To be sure, Delhi has 7.7 million registered vehicles of its own and hosts thousands from neighboring cities every day.

MCD operates 417 parking lots with an overall capacity to accommodate only 50,000 cars. Due to lack of regulated spaces, people park their vehicles on roads, pavements, and on streets.

Sarojini Nagar

The multilevel parking lot in the south Delhi neighbourhood was built in 2011 at a cost of 280 crore and can accommodate 840 cars. During a spot visit on Monday, HT found at least 780 of those slots vacant, according to the digital counter at the facility. The multilevel parking near Sarojini Nagar was built to ease the movement of shoppers in the busy market, which is popular for cheap clothes and accessories. But the facility has largely failed on this front. The roads leading to the market are choked with illegally parked vehicles, with the multilevel parking lot grossly underutilised.

According to commuters, it takes too long to park a car at the lot.

"The lift that carries the vehicles up to the slots is very slow. Sometimes it takes over 15-20 minutes just to park a car. This is why most people end up parking on the road," said Ashok Randhawa, head of the Sarojini Nagar minimarket traders' association.

A parking operator in the facility told HT it takes five or six minutes for the lift to carry a car to the slot. "This is not too much time, but people are impatient," said the operator, who asked not to be named.