NEW DELHI: From Saturday onwards, visitors thronging the revamped India Gate and Kartavya Path will have to pay for parking vehicles around and on Central Vista Avenue. New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) officials informed that the fortnightly scheme of free parking will be over by then.
“The parking service will now be chargeable as per the standard rates of the corporation. They will be similar to the rates in the rest of the NDMC parking lots and we will oversee their operations,” said D Karthikeyan, a senior official of the enforcement department, NDMC.
Satish Upadhyay, vice-chairperson, NDMC, informed that the corporation will manage the parking facility till the service is outsourced to a concessionaire. We will float a tender for this. All parking slots created at and around the India Gate will be managed by the facility chosen after the bid. Till then, the NDMC will manage the operations,” he said. Karthikeyan said the tender is being drafted and will be floated soon.
NDMC has created multiple parking sites with a capacity of 1,117 cars and 40 buses around Kartavya Path and surrounding areas. These parking sites are located between Janpath and Rafi Marg (space for 500 cars), C Hexagon and Man Singh Road (space for 200 cars), and Man Singh Road and Janpath (space for over 400 cars).
Kartavya Path, rechristened from Rajpath, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 8. It was thrown open to the public on September 9, and the corporation offered free parking for the next 15 days.
The route runs from Rashtrapati Bhavan on Raisina Hill through Vijay Chowk and India Gate to the National Stadium. It has 16 permanent walkway bridges, among other features. The 3-km long stretch has been evenly segregated into eight zones by the central civic corporation. Besides, dedicated vending zones, toilets, parking areas, and better lighting were additions.
To maintain civic order, the NDMC has deployed 92 officials from the health department, enforcement, and civil defence volunteers to the c-hexagon and nearby areas of the Kartavya Path.