Coming Soon: Double Parking
Civic Bodys Amended Norms Will Ensure More Slots In New Housing Societies, Complexes, Theatres …Sharad Vyas I TNN
Mumbai: Heres some good news for new housing societies. The BMC is creating a new set of guidelines to double the parking space in new housing societies both in the island city and the suburbs. The new rules are likely to be formulated in a few weeks.
As part of our efforts to create an efficient parking master plan, we have forwarded a proposal to the state government asking them to modify the existing development control (DC) rules. This will help meet the parking shortage in new housing societies as parking spaces will be doubled, said A T Shintre, chief engineer, development plan.
The new guidelines will mean that even small tenements in the island citywith a carpet area of up to 22.5 sq mcan claim a parking space. Under the current DC rules, a parking space is provided only to tenements with a carpet area of up to 45 sq m.
The new rules have been framed keeping in mind the rapid growth of four-wheelers in the city and the BMC is confident that these new offroad parking norms will not only benefit buyers but will also act as an incentive for developers who wont mind going vertical to create more parking space.
The developers will not mind constructing more only-parking floors since parking is free of floor space index (FSI). After the new rules are implemented, you will see more and more highrises coming up in the suburbs with first, second, third and even up to six floors reserved for parking, said a senior civic official.
The new rules will mean more parking in new hotels, shopping complexes, educational institutes, markets, stadia and clubs, cinema theatres and hospitals.
With Mumbais middle class getting ready to buy cheaper cars, developers and property consultants say people will be more than happy to pay Rs 6 to Rs 10 lakh for parking space in new developments.
All of this is an outcome of the small car issue. But for somebody who is paying Rs 2 crore for a house, paying Rs 6 to 10 lakh is not a big deal. Moreover, today, a developers ability to sell and resell a project solely depends on the kind of parking space on offer, said Pranay Vakil, chairman of Knight Frank India.
However, they say that the BMC and state governments highrise committee should exempt these extra parking floors while granting a no-objection certificate (NoC) to highrises. Any development of more than 24 floors is considered a highrise building and requires an NoC from the committee. Formulations of these new parking rules are encouraging, but the BMC should make sure that these extra parking floors are exempted from the highrise committee, said Sunil Mantri of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry (MCHI).
The modified norms will also help regulate parking disputes in housing societiescurrently there are hundreds and thousands of them pending in courts or management committees of their respective housing societies.