Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, August 25
With not enough space to park cars and two-wheelers that clog the city’s major roads, the civic body of space-starved Mumbai has decided to build car parks underground.
According to a proposal cleared by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) earlier this week, multi-storeyed parking spaces will be built below gardens, playgrounds, recreational grounds and even depots owned by the civic BEST bus service undertaking. “We plan to invite private builders to build two-storeyed parking areas below the open spaces. The builders will be given Transfer of Development Right (TDR) – an instrument which allows an equivalent built-up area — at a plot of his choice,” Sadanand Parab, Chairman, Improvements Committee of the BMC, said.
According to Parab, all open spaces in Mumbai, except for five open plots, can be used for underground parking. “We would like to have two-storeyed underground parking areas beneath these open spaces,” he added.
Mumbai’s corporators at a BMC meeting decided to go-ahead with the new rules for constructing underground parking areas after earlier incentives to builders did not get a good response.
Though builders were allowed to construct taller office buildings after reserving 70 per cent of a plot for multi-storeyed parking facilities, it was not considered lucrative enough by developers, according to civic officials.
According to civic officials, the BMC will invite bids from developers to build underground parking facilities below various plots of land owned by it once the proposal is cleared by the Maharashtra Government.
“The parking lot will have to be at least 1,000 sq m in area,”
Parab said. Civic officials hope that builders constructing multi-storeyed buildings will build underground parking facilities below open spaces near their projects to avail higher TDR.
Critics of the measure have, however, warned that developers may opt for the cut and cover method of constructing underground parking spaces. This will result in the destruction of trees on public gardens.
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/2L87ej3
via Today’s News Headlines
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