Increasing parking fee during odd-even implementation may create chaos: Kejriwal

Hiking parking fees during implementation of the odd-even road rationing scheme might lead to a chaos, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Thursday.

Last week, the Supreme Court-mandated Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA) chairman Bhure Lal had asked the Delhi government to fix the parking charges as per the new parking policy so that it could be hiked in view of growing air pollution.

The odd-even scheme will be in place from November 4 to November 15. Under the scheme, exempted vehicles having odd and even last digits of their registration numbers ply on alternate days.

It will become very difficult for people to travel if the odd-even scheme is implemented and parking fees are also hiked, Kejriwal said in a press conference.

"We are asking people to share their vehicles during odd-even days and if parking fees are increased, they will be deterred to take their vehicles out. There will be threat of chaos," he said.

At the press conference, Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot refused that a report on parking fee was submitted to him.

"I do not have information that any such report has been submitted. We will examine it whenever the report is submitted," he said.

According to media reports, a committee of the Delhi government has submitted its report to an apex monitoring committee chaired by Gahlot, recommending hike in parking fees at prominent locations in the city.

The EPCA chairman had asked Delhi government to fix the parking charges by October 15 to enable enforcement of Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) to tackle severe air pollution.

"GRAP provides for enhancement of these charges during high pollution period and this can only be done once the charges as provided in the policy are mandated and implemented," he had said.

The new parking policy of the Delhi government provides for fixing of a base parking fee by a committee headed by the Transport Commissioner.

The report of base parking fee committee is to be submitted to apex monitoring committee(AMC) headed by Transport minister, which is mandated for proper implementation and compliance of the parking policy rules.