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Bhubaneswar: In a major relief for visitors, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has directed different establishments such as commercial buildings, shopping malls, multiplexes, hospitals, apartments and housing projects not to collect fees for off-street parking on their premises. The orders will come into force with immediate effect.
Mandatory off-street parking shall be provided to visitors in different establishments such as commercial buildings, shopping malls, multiplexes, hospitals, apartments and housing projects as prescribed in the BDA (Planning & Building Standards) Regulations, 2018, the development authority said in a circular.
“It has come to the notice of BDA that different shopping malls, multiplexes and apartments are imposing parking charges. This is not consistent with the provisions of the BDA (P&BS) regulations as well as the approved building plan. The developers/owners are hereby directed to stop the illegal practice of charging of parking fees from the visitors, immediately,” the BDA said in a circular.
“It is therefore directed to all property owners to abide by the mandatory off-street parking provisions in the approved building plan and any deviations in the parking provisions shall be restored by the property owners as per the provisions of approved building plan within 30 days from the date of issue of this notice,” the circular said.
“The BDA shall take strict action on such developers who are charging such illegal parking fees towards the parking spaces already exempted from calculation of FAR under the provisions of BDA (Planning & Building Standards) Regulations, 2018,” the circular added.
The BDA has further stated parking area shown in the approved building plan is being used for purposes other than parking of vehicles in some of such buildings. Such misuse of parking is resulting in on-street parking and thereby adversely affecting the traffic movement on the public road, it said.
The BDA said the sub-regulation (7) of regulation 37 of the BDA (Planning & Building Standards) Regulations, 2018 prescribes that, the misuse of the parking spaces shall be summarily removed or demolished by the Authority.
Meanwhile, housing and urban development minister Pratap Jena said special squads will be formed to curb illegal parking along shopping malls and roads.
“Those shopping malls having their own parking space cannot charge parking fees from customers. Besides, they cannot collect fees if the parking spaces are located outside their malls. In such cases, BMC will collect the fees at designated sites allotted for parking” the minister said.
