The New Delhi Municipal Council is preparing to revive a long-pending underground multi-level parking facility near Khan Market, with a proposal likely to be placed before its council after years of delay over land and design issues.
The proposed facility would come up on a one-acre site opposite Bible Bhavan on Amrita Shergill Marg. The issue was discussed during a meeting on Monday between Khan Market Traders’ Association members, MP Bansuri Swaraj and NDMC chairman Manoj Dwivedi. The proposal has not yet been approved, and the project’s construction timeline and capacity have not been announced.
The traders’ association said it had been seeking a multi-level parking facility for about 15 years. Association president Sanjiv Mehra said the Delhi High Court had instructed NDMC in 2011 to build a parking lot on the plot opposite Bible Bhavan and allocate its tender. According to Mehra, the plan did not progress beyond the proposal stage.
The land-related issue involved a 5,000-square-metre plot that NDMC completed the process of purchasing from the Central Public Works Department in 2011 for Rs 14 crore, Mehra said. A disagreement over a few square metres subsequently delayed the project, according to the association.
Following the latest meeting, Dwivedi reportedly asked NDMC’s architecture department to retrieve the earlier drawings and rework the project. The next step is expected to be the placement of a revised proposal before the council. The available details do not establish whether the earlier design, tender documents or construction estimates remain usable.
Khan Market is among Delhi’s prominent commercial areas, and parking demand affects traders, customers, workers and nearby road users. A facility below ground could create parking capacity without requiring a large above-ground structure in an established, land-constrained urban district. However, the proposal’s eventual effect on congestion will depend on its approved capacity, access arrangements, construction schedule and operating rules, none of which have been specified in the reported discussions.
The meeting also covered the pending implementation of the unit area method, or UAM, which traders said remained unresolved months after the Jan Vishwas Bill came into effect. An official said the proposal had been vetted by the Delhi government’s law department and sent to the Urban Development Department. After approval, public suggestions would be invited before the matter is sent to the ministry for notification.
Traders from Sarojini Nagar, who attended the meeting, separately sought a standard plan for their buildings, an issue they said had also been pending with NDMC. For Khan Market, the immediate milestone is the council’s consideration of the revised underground parking proposal, followed by any required public consultation and approvals.
