CAG blames MCDs for 'acute shortage' of parking facilities

The CAG has flagged MCDs for "acute shortage" of parking facilities in the national capital and blamed the municipal authorities for "lack of initiative" in creating new parking lots as per increasing vehicles.
The Comptroller and Auditor General highlighted negligible progress in setting up underground automated parking (UGAP), wasteful expenditure on consultancy fee, and irregularities marred contract management at the three MCDs.
The report, covering the period from April 2010 to March 2015, was tabled in Delhi Assembly today.
A performance audit on 'parking facilities in MCD areas' revealed that 17 UGAPs were approved on PPP model in January 2007 but only one was created till July 2015. Part implementation of conventional multi level underground parkings (MLUGPs) resulted in "wasteful expenditure" of Rs 3.93 crore, it said.

The CAG said the process of awarding contracts and contract management were "marred with irregularities" such as acceptance of conditional bids and non-recovery of dues from contractors.
"Failure of the Remunerative Project Cells (RP Cells) to ensure compliance of terms and conditions of agreement by licencees led to mismanagement of parking sites," it said.

RP Cells of North, South and East Delhi Municipal Corporations are responsible for commercial utilisation of the parking sites.
The RP Cell of the then unified MCD identified 19 locations way back in 2005 for developing MLUGPs and the MCD approved plans for developing UGAPs at 17 of these locations but just one underground parking at Kamla Nagar was created as of July 31, 2015, said the report.

It mentioned an outstanding monthly licence fee (MLF) of Rs 6.95 crore not recovered by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). Audit found NDMC cancelled 70 licences in 2014 due to non-payment of MLF by the licencees.
However, NDMC allowed licensees to continue running parking sites without the regular MLF payment and security deposit, resulting in "Rs 6.95 crore revenue loss", the report said.
The CAG found NDMC was allowing an "undue benefit" of Rs 2.57 crore to the licencee who was allotted terrace of the Parade Ground MLUGP at an MLF of Rs 4 lakh in April 2013 but the open area of the facility was also used till June 2015.

The audit also reported a loss of Rs 55.35 lakh due to "unauthorised occupation" of surface parking at SDA Market, Rose Garden, under South Delhi Municipal Corporation.