It Registers 1,200 Cars Daily But Added Only 2,500 Parking Slots In 10 Years It’s a city dependent on private transport—about 1,200 cars are registered here every day—but civic infrastructure has not kept pace with the number of vehicles. Of the 41 multilevel parking projects conceived by the erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) between 2007 and 2010, just three are operational and close to 10 have been scrapped. In the past 10 years, only three multilevel parking lots—Kamla Nagar, Parade Ground and Hauz Khas—and a stack parking at Sheila Cinema have been built, adding space for 2,500 cars. A global survey of 20 cities found Delhi is the worst place to park in. Still, the civic agencies are focusing on discouraging car use instead of increasing parking infrastructure and improving public transport. People say hiking parking rates will not reduce private vehicle use unless other things change. “Autos don’t ply by the meter and buses are crowded; how do you expect people to use public transport? Before hiking parking charges, the government should put public transport in order,’’ said Ashok Bhasin, president of North Delhi Residents Welfare Forum. While 11 parking lots are under construction, North and South corporations claim six more will be made operational by mid-June. But people are skeptical as the Hauz Khas and Parade Ground lots that were inaugurated in 2012 became operational after oneand-a-half years. Manish Gupta, commissioner of South Corporation, said, “A lot of planned parking projects had to be scrapped as EPCA refused to give permission to construct parking lots underneath parks. Now, we are looking for new sites but are yet to hear from DDA. For parking projects under JNNURM, the government had asked us to get the work vetted by an independent agency. It took a lot of time to hire an agency as the guidelines were changed several times’’. The problem is worse in areas under the municipal corporations as most parking lots there are illegally run. The corporations have authorized just 300-odd surface parking sites. Even when traffic police crack down on illegal parking, it is the common man who suffers. “We are trying to complete the projects as soon as possible. Post-trifurcation, it has become difficult to fund projects,’’ said Subhash Arya, leader of the house in South Corporation.