New Delhi, Nov 10: The capital today got its first automated multi-level car parking lot at the crowded Sarojini Nagar Market that is expected to reduce congestion on the roads and allow shoppers to leave their vehicles at a safe place.
'South Square', as the state-of-the-art parking lot built at a cost of Rs 80 crore under the Public-Private-Partnership mode is known, was thrown open to the public by Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit in the presence of Union Sports Minister Ajay Maken.
Designed to accommodate 824 vehicles, the multi-level parking area is fully automated and has car lifts, pallets, computerised control systems that will be operational round the clock.
People can use the parking by buying a 'car park card', drive into the facility and leave the car at the basement, from where it will be automatically taken to the parking area.
As the car reaches the Parking Window, the registration number is scanned, in-time is recorded and the information from the camera is relayed to the operation system. After the process, the driver will get a smart card which he can use to take the vehicle back.
The automated parking system has state-of-the-art security check and car scanning technologies with improved security, safety for parking of the cars in minimum space.
Built by New Delhi Municipal Council and DLF, people will have to pay Rs 10 for the first two hours and then Rs 10 for each subsequent hour upto a maximum of Rs 40 per day.
Cars can be parked from 2nd to 8th floor while the ground and first floors will have retail outlets and restaurants, a release from the NDMC said.
The retail space will also provide house kiosks that can be converted into exciting seasonal market spaces for festive fairs that sell candles during Christmas and diyas during Diwali," it said.
The parking lot will have common space and circulation spaces that will include access corridors, lift lobby, passages, corridors and common toilets.
It also has underground water tanks, pump room, electric sub-stations and a sewage treatment plant.
A modern multi-level car parking facility is likely to come up in the city's posh Khan Market area with Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today requesting Union Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath to allot a plot of land for the project.
Dikshit made the request to Nath during inauguration of Delhi's first automated multi-level car parking lot at the crowded Sarojini Market.
Nath assured that his Ministry will facilitate allotment of suitable plots of land by DDA or Land and Building department for constrution of parking lots in the city.
Dikshit hoped that parking woes in the New Delhi area will come to an end by next year with commissioning of two more state-of-the-art parking facilities.
Dikshit said the automated parking lot, being constructed at Baba Kharag Singh Marg, will decongest Connaught Place and surrounding areas. She said the first under ground automated parking facilty, being constructed by the DMRC near Delhi High Court, will also provide great relief.
Apart from this, she said, the bottlenecks in construction of an automated parking lot behind HT building will also be resolved soon.
Dikshit described the new parking facility at Sarojini Nagar as “safe and convenient” and said it will help in decongesting the popular market and surrounding areas.
The Chief Minister said Delhi was marching ahead “very fast” and hence developing such new and modern infrastructure must be encouraged and facilated by the Centre and other governmnet agencies.
She also exhorted the MCD to expedite construction of all multi-level automated parking lots in the city. Dikshit also thanked Nath for agreeing to revise implementation of Master Plan of Delhi-2021.
Addressing the gathring, Nath said that The Master Plan of Delhi-2021, implemented in 2007, will be revised next year taking into account the possible urban growth in future and the “ground reality”, including the fate of markets existing in the capital for several years.
Nath said there are markets which are existing since long and they cannot be done away with as per provision in the Master Plan.
“The proposed revision, as indicated by the Union Minister, would be able to provide relief to people,” she said.
