Bengaluru: Parking spaces at metro stations can only be built if separate land is allotted, say Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) officials.
The main challenge while planning is that the land cost is high and it is not possible to take the land which has already been given to the metro stations, said Gubbi Chandrashekar Shivakumar, Chief Engineer (Planning and Designs), BMRCL. So, the engineers have to allocate a separate land near the station, he added.
Shivkumar said, “According to the New Transit Oriented Development (TOD) policy, we discourage the parking spaces in metro. Meanwhile, we are working to provide last mile and first mile connectivity so that people don’t have to use their vehicles which will eliminate parking.”
Recently, Silk Institute, Talaghattapura and Konanakunte Cross metro stations have started with paid parking. However, metro staff at Doddakallasandra station said that the commuters have to park their vehicles on their own risk as they do not have a parking space. The parking fees at most stations are Rs 20 or Rs.Rs.30 for two wheelers and Rs 60 for four wheelers.
Nandini Ramesh, a regular commuter said, “It was never easy to bring your own vehicle to metro stations, now with these parking spaces we hope that our problems will be solved but anyway there is not much space to park our vehicles, especially for the four wheelers.”
Soumojit Basu, public policy public policy expert said, “To mitigate this problem, the metro could have planned to accommodate parking bays for autos, Uber and also make adjustments after rise of micro mobility services like MyByk, Yulu and Bounce – whilst this is harder for metro lines laid ten years ago, what’s the excuse for newer metro lines?”
