Now pay and park at Khan Market

Saturday, March 05, 2011

Shopping at those swanky outlets in Khan Market may now come with the rider of a parking fee. Visitors will have to pay on an hourly basis to park their cars from April 1. New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has been asked by the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee to take over the management of the parking space from the traders' association. Though the rates have not been fixed yet, sources in the NDMC said that initially it is going to be equivalent to the charges prevalent in other markets, for example Connaught Place. For the past 25 years, parking inside the market was managed by the trader's association and it was 'free' for both shopkeepers and visitors. 

"A meeting was convened by the monitoring committee on Saturday to discuss the parking problem at Khan Market and it was recommended that the NDMC should take it over and make it an authorized parking,'' said Santosh D Vaidya, secretary, NDMC. "We are waiting for the final order by the committee, which is going to meet again on March 15. After that tenders will be floated for managing this parking space along with 53 other parking areas under us in New Delhi area. This will be the 54th authorized parking." Vaidya said the final plan is to create a multi-level parking like the one being developed at Baba Kharak Singh Marg in Connaught Place and Sarojini Nagar. "We have already written to the ministry of urban development for allotment of space on Amrita Shergill Marg," he added. 

Bhure Lal, a member of the SC-appointed committee who chaired the meeting, added that once the multi-level parking was created nearby, no parking will be allowed inside Khan Market. "The parking space, which the traders claim to be managing for free, was originally a park. We want it to be restored," he said. 

According to Lal, visitors do not get to park right now as most of the space is occupied by cars of the shopkeepers themselves. "Visitors have to pay extra money, sometimes Rs 20 per hour, to park their vehicles. Originally, the market had shops on the ground floor and residences on the first floor. But since conversion has been allowed, all the residences have been turned into restaurants and pubs. There is no space for pedestrians to walk and even a bomb scare can lead to a big tragedy in the area. Fire tenders cannot go in. We have asked the traders' association and civic agencies to come up with a presentation on how they are going to deal with these problems on March 15, after which a final decision will be taken," said Lal. The committee has also asked NDMC to do away with the old and obsolete government-owned cars lying at the parking space inside Lok Nayak Bhavan and put a check on government officials parking their vehicles on the main road. 

The traders are, however, miffed over the imposition of parking charges. "We have been managing the parking here for 25 years and people are allowed to park for free. Imposition of charges as high as Rs 10-20 per hour will affect local people who come here to fulfill their daily needs," said a trader. 

At any given point of time, it takes 15 minutes to enter Khan Market due to the serious parking crunch in the area. Khan Market traders claim that the parking problems have increased manifold over the years with no parking available at the nearby Metro station. The Lok Nayak Bhavan basement parking has been shut down. There are about 300 shops in the market and the footfall can be imagined. 

Original news source http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/Now-pay-and-park-at-Khan-Market/articleshow/7636452.cms