Mumbai, often hailed as the city of dreams, is grappling with an acute parking crisis, exacerbated by a burgeoning population and an escalating number of vehicles. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has faced persistent challenges in addressing this issue, leading to growing frustration among residents and experts.
A recent analysis by the Observer Research Foundation highlights the gravity of the situation. Mumbai, which boasts the highest vehicle density in India, had a parking demand of 284,575 equivalent car spaces (ECS) as per the 2016 Comprehensive Mobility Plan. By 2022, the city’s available parking capacity had plummeted to a mere 39,501 ECS under the BMC’s jurisdiction, with an additional 26,815 ECS managed by government and commercial entities. Despite the introduction of a new parking policy by the BMC in 2022, its implementation remains incomplete, and the Mumbai Parking Authority (MPA) is yet to become fully functional.
In response to the crisis, the BMC established a committee to draft a comprehensive parking policy and created the MPA. However, the MPA’s inactivity has been a significant concern. Ashok Datar, a prominent traffic expert involved in the policy drafting, expressed his disillusionment: “The BMC appears more focused on increasing the Floor Space Index (FSI) for private builders rather than addressing the parking crisis. This approach favours builders over ordinary citizens.”
Datar further illustrated the severity of the issue, noting that Mumbai is home to 2.3 million cars and 3.4 million two-wheelers, with roughly a third of these vehicles occupying street spaces. The annual addition of 300,000 to 400,000 new cars exacerbates the parking shortage. Datar advocates for a model akin to Tokyo’s, where prospective car buyers must demonstrate available parking space before purchase. He also criticised the underutilisation of public parking facilities and highlighted the problem of insufficient parking spaces in high-rise developments. To tackle these challenges, the Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) mandated in April that developers include detailed parking information in property documents.
