Sunday, June 19, 2011

MCD may lose out on Central funding for parking projects

Thursday, June 14, 2011




At A time when Delhi is facing an acute shortage of parking space, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) is in danger of losing out on Central funding for six of its multi-level parking projects.

As many as 10 MCD projects were approved under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission for over Rs 800 crore, but the civic body failed to secure environment clearances for them.

The deadline for completion of all JNNURM projects is March 2012, and if work on the projects is not taken up soon, there is a possibility of losing out on financial aid from the Centre as well as Delhi government. At least 25 percent of the budget comes from the Union Government under this scheme.

Delhi's Urban Development Secretary R K Srivastava said the mandatory clearance by the Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre (UTTIPEC) was expected soon, and the civic agency will be able to start work on the projects after that.

"As many as 29 projects, amounting to Rs 8,027 crore, were approved — out of which 10 are yet to be taken up. Work on all the 10 is to be executed by the MCD," he said, adding that 19 projects — taken up by other agencies such as Delhi Jal Board, New Delhi Municipal Council and Public Works Department — have already been completed.

The civic agency could not get sanction for the projects — most of which are multi-level parking — on environmental grounds. The MCD had proposed to construct underground parking lots under MCD parks. The environment committees have, however, rejected the idea. Only parking lots above the ground have received permission as of now. Unless these projects begin before this year ends, the budget will lapse.

He said the Union Urban Development Ministry has set March 31, 2012, as the deadline for completing the projects and there was a possibility of financial allocation not coming at all for the projects. "We are expecting permission for the projects soon," the official said.


Posted by Rajeev Lochan Sharma at 5:20 AM 0 comments

Friday, June 10, 2011

Delhi model to curb drunk driving

Tuesday, June 04, 2011




If all goes according to plan, drunk drivers can land in jail in the coming months. This may become possible as the Chandigarh police has decided to adopt the Delhi Traffic Police model against drunk driving, through which the drivers found guilty of this offence can be imprisoned up to six months.

The police believe that drunk driving is one of the major causes of fatal accidents taking place in the city.

"We have decided to adopt the Delhi Traffic Police model to curb the menace of drunk driving in the city," Inspector General of Police Pradeep Kumar Srivastava said at a joint press conference, also addressed by Delhi Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg.

Srivastava said the UT police has decided to approach judicial officers in Chandigarh on the issue so as to make them aware about the Delhi model where the accident rate due to tough measures—where the offenders are put behind bars—had shown encouraging results.

"We have plans to go hammer and tongs against menace of drunk driving in the city and in near future we will try to implement the Delhi model," Srivastava said.

Garg, who before addressing the press conference, chaired a meeting with the officials of UT police to make them aware about the legal course against drunk driving, said a message had gone in Delhi among the people that 'one can't go away with the drunk driving'.

"It took lot of time to ensure that the drunk drivers are punished. The Section 185 of MV Act 1988, specially deals with inebriated drivers and all those found guilty used to pay the fine and beyond it they were not punished. They would apologise before the court. But there was a provision for imprisonment for this offence, but it was never enforced at any place. In 2010, we took the issue with the judicial officers in Delhi and after many meetings and explaining that the law needed to be tough and the offenders need to be arrested as the drunk driving was the root cause of the fatal accidents, they too decided to be strict," Garg said.

"After 2010, we imprisoned hundreds of offenders."

Delhi's joint commissioner of police said they have been able to bring down the accident rate after initiating tough action against the drunk drivers.

"At a time when accidents are increasing everywhere, we in Delhi were able to bring down the accidents by 10 per cent in 2010 and in first five months (of this year), the accidents have been brought down to 12 per cent ," he said, adding that after the conviction, the driving licences of the offenders were also suspended by the authorities.


Posted by Rajeev Lochan Sharma at 1:51 PM 0 comments

MCD fight holds up parking lots

Monday, June 06, 2011




For the average Delhiite, parking is a never-ending problem. Now, it has got aggravated thanks to an ongoing tussle between the MCD's political and executive wings over the tendering of parking lots. Delhi, which is already short on parking space, would have got an additional 125 surface parking lots had the executive wing called for tenders for the same. This would have created an additional space for 12,500 vehicles.

Presently there are around 110 surface parking lots that fall under the jurisdiction of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). These 110-odd parking lots can accommodate only 11,000 vehicles at any given point of time.

According to sources, the executive wing had decided to invite tenders for the 125-odd new parking lots. These tenders were floated with new terms and conditions in order to rein in errant contractors. However, the Delhi Mayor questioned this move of the Remunerative Project (RP) Cell as to why permission from both the MCD Standing Committee and House were not taken.

"How can they change the terms and conditions without taking the MCD House or Standing Committee's permission? There is an official channel through which all such projects and schemes are cleared. They officers need to follow that. I have received representation from a number of quarters asking why the terms were changed," said Mayor Rajni Abbi.

Sources added that all the parking lots whose tenders have not been called for are being run illegally by the parking mafia that has been fleecing people by overcharging them.

The civic agency had incorporated the new terms and conditions on the recommendation of the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA).

A statutory body formed after on the Supreme Court directions, EPCA monitors the progress of various steps taken by the government agencies and develops new policies to curb vehicular air pollution.

"The development appears to be a tacit move by the parking contractor mafia, who are apparently trying to thwart the new terms and conditions so as to run unauthorised parking lots in order to make money," said a senior MCD official requesting anonymity. 

Last month, the civic agency had received flak from the EPCA for not complying with the different conditions to regularise parking sites in the city.

During a meeting of the EPCA with various civic agencies, Bhure Lal, its chairperson had taken the MCD officials to task for showing laxity about demarcating the parking sites, introducing handheld parking ticket machines and installing boards displaying rates.


Posted by Rajeev Lochan Sharma at 1:50 PM 0 comments

Khan market parking: HC in favour of NDMC

Saturday, June 04, 2011




The Delhi High Court on Friday gave its nod to a mandate by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to do away with the free parking facility in Khan Market.

Going by the views of the the Environment Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) and Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Justice S Muralidhar refused to interfere with the decision and noted: "There is paid parking in every major commercial centre and market in the NDMC area except Khan Market. The impugned decision was only extending the policy of paid parking to Khan Market as well...The traders' association has been unable to persuade the court otherwise."

The court has told the association to deposit a licence fee of Rs 5.34 lakh with the NDMC by 5 pm on June 6 if it wishes to maintain parking issues by itself.

Responding to the order, Sanjiv Mehra, president of the association, said: "We are going to pay the NDMC and keep the parking in our jurisdiction. Parking will be free at least for now.


Posted by Rajeev Lochan Sharma at 1:50 PM 0 comments
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