Delhi pollution: Parking fee for cars, two-wheelers hiked

After banning BS3 petrol and BS4 diesel vehicles to reduce pollution, the civic body in Delhi is now actively discouraging citizens to take their cars and two-wheelers out. In the latest move, the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) has increased parking fee for cars and two-wheelers in the national capital to bring down number of vehicles on road. The effort is seen as one of the strategies to keep vehicular pollution down. Earlier, the Delhi government had to scrap its plans to re-introduce the Odd-Even rule to minimise use of private vehicles amid spike in AQI post Diwali.

Parking fee for cars and two-wheelers are decided by NDMC. The civic body charges ₹20 per hour as parking fee for cars, which goes up to ₹100 per day. The fee is higher in case of any multi-level parking. Parking fee for two-wheelers is ₹10 per hour and a maximum of ₹50 per day. After the parking fee hike, four-wheelers will be charged ₹40 per hour with a maximum of ₹200 per day, while two-wheelers are charged ₹20 per hour. In the case of multilevel parking sites, the charges are ₹20 for up to four hours for cars and ₹10 for up to four hours for two-wheelers.

NDMC currently has 91 parking sites under its jurisdiction, out of which 41 are managed by the civic body itself while the others are outsourced to different agencies. Some of the busiest parking sites in Delhi include the area between Rajpath and AIIMS, Sarojini Nagar market, Khan Market, Lodhi Road, INA, AIIMS and Safdarjung.

On Tuesday, NDMC issued a notification regarding the change in parking fee. It reads, “Keeping in view the climatic conditions, the parking fees (off road/on road) has been enhanced to twice the existing (amount) to discourage private transport for the parking managed by NDMC through its own staff till 31st January 2024." The decision comes amid Graded Action Response Plan (GRAP) Stage 4 being in place in Delhi with its own set of restrictions on private and commercial vehicles.

The stage four of GRAP prevents entry of BS3 petrol and BS4 diesel vehicles in the national capital. Delhi Traffic Police has also started to crack down heavily on vehicles plying without valid Pollution Under Check (PUC) certificates. Despite the strict GRAP Stage 4 guidelines and a hefty ₹20,000 fine for violators, certain categories of vehicles under restricted list continue to enter the capital city. Delhi Labour Minister Raaj Kumar Anand has claimed that diesel vehicles from outside the city continue to enter despite a ban on them.