Chennai Corporation to adopt differential charges for on-street parking in congested areas

The Greater Chennai Corporation plans to implement differential pricing in parking, reducing prices of parking in multi-level car parking and increasing the parking charges for on-street parking in congested areas

The Greater Chennai Corporation plans to implement differential pricing in parking, reducing prices of parking in multi-level car parking and increasing the parking charges for on-street parking in congested areas. The parking charges in congested areas such as T. Nagar, Nungambakkam and Egmore will be higher than that of outer areas such as Tiruvottiyur, based on a study by CUMTA.

At a meeting in Ripon Buildings on Tuesday to discuss the draft parking policy prepared by CUMTA, the Corporation and the police agreed to implement new parking charges focussing on parking as a “commodity”.

CUMTA Special Officer I. Jeyakumar said the draft parking policy for 5,904 sq. km has been prepared based on models adopted in Bengaluru and Madhya Pradesh. The Corporation has prepared a parking policy for 426 sq. km of the city. The draft parking policy for the entire metropolitan area has been readied by CUMTA.

Corporation Commissioner J. Radhakrishnan gave a few suggestions for improvement in the draft. Once the corrections were made, the State government was expected to notify the parking policy.

Following the joint meeting of stakeholders, the Corporation and the police have planned to give their comments on other aspects of parking this week for successful implementation in the city. “After the State government approves the policy, we will prepare a detailed management plan for each cluster in the metropolitan area. We will focus on aspects such as off-street parking, on-street parking, collection, pricing and IT-enabled services. CUMTA will carry out a study on parking policy and give recommendation to local bodies,” he said.

“Parking should be treated as a commodity. It is not a welfare measure. The land value of prime area is high. So, parking rates should be high in the prime area. Our main objective is to promote public transport. So, we should ensure the availability of public transport such as Metro Rail, suburban train and bus before the implementation of differential parking rates,” said Mr. Jeyakumar. “We will determine the prices in different areas such as T. Nagar based on a study. Prime areas will have high rates. Multi-level parking rates will be reduced,” he said.