CHENNAI: Parking vehicles in Anna Nagar will become dearer soon as the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) is proposing a parking project with an hourly fee. Within this financial year, the project’s pilot phase will be executed on 5 sq.km area in Anna Nagar (covering 23 km of road network). This will make CUMTA the lone agency carrying out and regulating parking management in Chennai.
Sources said the CUMTA has already completed a detailed study of the area and is likely to float a tender for the project covering both primary and secondary roads. Along with parking management on a pilot basis, the Greater Chennai Corporation will be taking up the work of footpath improvement.
The parking policy draft prepared by CUMTA, to reduce traffic congestion and encourage the use of public transport, is likely to be implemented by the state government. According to sources, while the population only grew by 19% in Tamil Nadu in the past decade, the number of vehicles surged by 35% in the last four years alone. This proves an accelerated growth in the number of private vehicles.
“We will be undertaking a public consultation with residents and shopkeepers after the Model Code of Conduct for Lok Sabha elections ceases. We are currently working out the parking charges which will be vetted by the Chennai corporation and the traffic police. Though recommendations will be made by the CUMTA, the final decision will be taken by the corporation after it passes a resolution in this regard,” an official said.
In 2013, the AIADMK government announced a comprehensive integrated parking management project in Chennai at a cost of Rs 2,000 crore to accommodate as many as two lakh four-wheelers and two lakh two-wheelers. The comprehensive integrated parking management was announced by former chief minister O Panneerselvam in 2019. This came after a team from the then housing department visited Hungary and studied the parking system in Budapest.