Jawed Khurshid 

                                                               

Vehicle parking and water scarcity are the two chronic problems grievously affecting the city. Various projects were mooted to root out the problem but unfortunately none of them successfully rescued Mumbaikars from the trauma caused by them.

 

A much touted BMC’s underground parking project is lying in limbo. Or will this succumb to politico-bureaucratic interference?

 

It should be recalled that the BMC had proposed underground parking in 2009 to remove traffic hassles on some of the important routes in the city. The plan to construct seven underground parking lots with a capacity of 1400 vehicles in South Mumbai – was intended to ‘open up’ an excess of 30 per cent space presently occupied by parked vehicles to the traffic on this stretch.

 

Regarding shelving of the project, the BMC’s DPDT Department that regulates projects run on private-public- partnership (PPP) basis has, however, a different story to narrate. The deputy chief engineer (DPDT), Pradeep Gurjar said the city police have objected to the project on security ground.

 

Ridiculously, there are innumerable basement parking lots in malls, multiplexes and workstations across the city. So have they ducked police scrutiny?

 

When pointed out that underground parking have become a common sight in numerous metropolitan centers across globe despite similar threats there too, he declines to comment.

 

It has been learnt from informed sources that a construction company closer to a powerful politician was initially offered the project. This ambitious project that was being implemented under the BOT basis that ran into a controversy as the BMC had agreed to fund the entire cost of Rs 440 crore and then hand it over to a private company to run it for thirty years without investing a single rupee. The furor over this in the state assembly was instrumental in consigning this to cold storage.

 

A senior official looking after civic issues said on condition of anonymity that there are more to it than meets the eye. ‘The project if implemented would cost the exchequer a whopping amount with little hope for civic body to retrieve the money it intends to spend,’ he lamented. So where would the hard-earned taxpayer’s money go? Don’t you smell something fishy?

 

‘The project must come out from bureaucratic maze as it would usher in free space to drive our vehicles,’ pointing towards illegally parked vehicles – a perennial sight at Andheri-Kurla road, a commuter sighed. The hardly 15-minutes journey used to take an hour to cover. He added that such projects must come up everywhere in the metropolis and not restricted only to South Mumbai.