nrupatunga
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Seven-and-a-Half Million Cars Trigger Parking Wars in Delhi
India's capital, Delhi, has seen many a great war. But the latest one is being fought in the most unlikely of places – the residential colonies in the city. Roadside parking spots have become the battlefield as the number of cars in Delhi has surged over the years.
Residents have declared their right to every inch of parking space in the gated neighborhood, demanding that the curbs be protected from nonresidents and their cars at all times. Houses in the colony all have driveways that allow for one or two cars, but that's not enough for households that may have as many as five cars.
The foot soldiers in these parking wars are the security guards charged with not just manning the gates, but guarding expensive cars and their almost equally cherished parking spots.
The congestion on the roads has spilled over to neighborhood streets, and the quest for parking space in residential areas has taken the form of ugly turf wars not just in Defence Colony but in many upscale neighborhoods, like the newly prosperous colonies of Rajouri Garden and Punjabi Bagh in west Delhi.
Signs warning nonresidents to park at their own risk are a common sight in most affluent neighborhoods, like Green Park and Lajpat Nagar. Residents often seek police help in towing away the cars parked by nonresidents. People do all sorts of things — they puncture the tires or deflate them, break windows or wipers, scratch cars."
Anuj Dewan, 33, a resident of Vasant Kunj, acknowledged that he isn't just a bystander in the parking wars. "I am involved in frequent fights even with my neighbors over parking space," he said.
"Due to the growing number of cars, parks have been informally converted into parking spaces in some residential colonies," said Mr. Shukla. And traffic snarls are a common sight in the middle of residential colonies like Greater Kailash as parked cars eat into walkways and driveways.
The city government is well aware of the parking crunch. But the focus of the most recent measures to tackle Delhi's parking problems has been on commercial areas, not residential colonies. Even when the city does propose a solution, residents aren't eager to sign on.
In fact, encouraging people to stop driving is the only practical way to end the parking wars, said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director at the Centre for Science and Environment.
"Taking into account the annual increase in registration of new cars in Delhi, we would need at least 310 football fields every year to satisfy the growing demand for parking space," Ms. Roychowdhury said.
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