The capital city of India, famous for its delicious food, historical monuments, VIP movements and traffic. Delhi has always been a target for global media for all the wrong reasons. Efforts are being made to curb the traffic, new flyovers are being constructed, underpasses are all over the city, the metro is underground and above the ground as well, and the government buses are available at every corner of the city (mostly). What else can a city do for its people? The efforts are there, but not proportionate.
Delhi sees 5.6 lakh vehicles coming from other states, around 1800 new cars are delivered every day in Delhi, and around 79 lakh vehicles (including all types) (approx) are of people in Delhi. The car and bike showrooms have targets to reach and to make purchasing available to everyone, and the EMI options are available for almost everything, including purchasing shoes. The ease of purchase has given the opportunity to actually own a new car to many. Increasing car and bike purchases have suffocated the roads, as the roads were not built to cater to such a huge fleet. Growing vehicle purchases bring another important problem of Parking, which major cities of the country have failed to resolve.
As per reports, New Delhi has official parking spaces for around 4 lakh vehicles. Multi-storey parking spaces in the city are not very successful for reasons like delays in parking, the lift works slowly, and it takes a lot of patience. People tend to park their vehicles on footpaths, roads, and places where it creates too much havoc in peak hours. 2-way roads are 1-way roads because the vehicles are parked on the other side of the road, and why wouldn’t they, as they have no place to park, they’ll park on the road itself, right? People wish to purchase a car first and then think about its parking, and the companies have nothing to do with the concern of parking, so do the RTO or any other department, as showing a parking place before purchase is not a requirement in India. As per section 3 of the Delhi Maintenance and Management of Parking Rules, 2017, there are government bodies responsible for making area plans.
There is a huge push for electric and CNG vehicles in the capital. As per CAQM Direction No. 94, Aggregator, Delivery Service Provider, E-Commerce Entity shall not induct conventional ICE vehicles running purely on Petrol or Diesel and 2 wheelers to their existing fleet, effective from 01.01.2026. How is an Electric car helping in curbing pollution when the electricity itself is being produced by burning coal? Approximately 75% of India’s electricity is produced by burning coal. This doesn’t mean the government’s decision is wrong, but along with such a decision, there are other important aspects that the government has to focus on, namely, repairing roads by filling potholes and eliminating illegal U-turns across the city, making dedicated parking spots and maintaining them.
The lack of urban planning has resulted in a severe issue that everybody faces now. Streets are either one-way or closed because of illegal parking. Multi- storey parking complexes like one in Sarojini Nagar are a good initiative, but poorly executed. To date, the congestion of vehicles has not yet been solved. People quarrel over parking spaces, and such quarrels end up in fights and also cause death. Think of the standards, where the capital city residents fight for parking spaces and end up taking lives? There are plenty of techniques which can be adopted for resolving such parking issues.
One such type, which I recommend, is the Rotatory Parking System, where a simple building-like structure can accommodate around 16 SUVs or 20 sedans. The area required for such a setup is as much as 2-3 parking spaces. It is a very efficient and trial and tested system across different countries. This system works because it is to be installed in an unplanned city, where you don’t have much time to find a big piece of land and then build a multi-storey building. This can only be a success when it is well-maintained, well-staffed, equipped with the best technology, and installed in very essential areas of the city. Gated societies, courts, government departments, and stadiums shall show interest in
adopting such a system, as, reduction of a minute second of travel can help us achieve in reduction in pollution. Think of a situation where you are in a residential colony of Jangpura and you see a park at the centre and surrounded
by residential buildings with not many parking spaces. So to park the vehicle, they need parking spaces, but due to not much available space, residents park their vehicles on the street, causing further congestion. This can be avoided if
the residents of the colony decide to have a dedicated parking tower like the Rotatory Parking System, and have more places to walk or talk and do whatever they wish to.
The Rotatory Parking System is safe, space efficient, theft-proof (unless the guy who operates it steals), sustainable and essential for the current situation. When the cars are parked in this system, they are safe because the car is safe from
theft, vandalism or getting the car towed away. It is sustainable because the solution is long-term derived. Having conventional dedicated parking spaces invites street hawkers, animals, and people to occupy such spaces if not well maintained and takes up more space for fewer cars, but that will not be the case in the case of such a parking system
A major drawback for such a system would be car size; there are cars in different shapes like hatchbacks, SUVs, sedans, pickup trucks, MPVs, minivans, but the parking system cannot cater for all kinds of cars. Because if the effort is to cater only to hatchbacks, then parking an SUV or sedan would end up on the roadside, which brings us back to point zero, where it all started. So, what I suggest is, instead of conventional parking spaces, each of such rotatory parking systems can be installed, in different sizes, so that each parking system can have one type of car only, like if a parking system is for hatchbacks then parking is reserved only for hatchbacks, but this would take much space and having only 1 pickup truck parking in an area which only have pickup truck in majority would differ our cause. So the other possibility could be the size of the biggest car or pickup truck, so that a car like the MG Comet can also fit in such a parking space, or a car like Landrover Defender can also fit in the same parking space. This would clear the confusion about where to park and cater to all the needs. The government has enough power and money to buy land from the existing residents and compensate them with other good options for living, and build such parking structures for common public. There are abandoned buildings and buildings with no safety measures, where the government will have a stronger say in purchasing.
Having emphasis on parking alone might not curb the pollution emissions, but with less halting on the roads, reaching the destination faster, having dedicated parking areas, pothole-free roads or finishing the pending construction of the roads might help the government and country to reach its desired result of curbing pollution. It cannot be expected of people to follow unless they see government offices, courts, and other departments adopt such systems and set an example which might inspire the common people.
For example, if any government wishes to have more income in a year than the previous existing governments, either it can sell the PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings) to the private entities and show the profits gained in such a transaction and have a healthy balance sheet “for a year”, or spend on making money earning projects, which will give government more and permanent earnings, similarly banning petrol, diesel vehicles is only one part of the cause. In such cases, the second scenario is desirable if you wish to run your government for a longer time.
Adopting “Place of Parking” as a law, where a strict scrutiny for showing the parking space must be a requirement before purchasing any vehicle. Such a law will help in decreasing roadside parking and ease the movement of vehicles, reducing stalled vehicles in traffic and cutting down travel time.
I believe the preparations for such a cause shall be like the preparations made for the Army of the Dead in Game of Thrones, extreme preparedness and working for the worst possible situation and not like reminding our parents at 10 PM to get an Indian map for school.
References:
1. https://caqm.nic.in/WriteReadData/LINKS/Direction%20No-94cd874424-d234-41f3-872a-e51267b5447e.pdf
2. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/delhi-clean-mobility/article69657919.ece
6. https://www.chintglobal.com/global/en/about-us/news-center/blog/parking-system-types-benefits.html
7. https://bharatneeti.com/revolutionizing-urban-parking-the-rise-of-rotary-parking-systems-in-china/
12. YouTube – Auto Parking System – ROTARY TYPE
-By Advaith Dhanpal (11/07/2025)