Summary
In continuing environmental proceedings, the Court issued directions addressing Delhi’s parking congestion, pedestrian access and planning failures. It required clearance of pavement encroachments after notice, prompt notification and enforcement of parking rules, and assessment of long-term parking needs before construction permissions. Pilot projects and reports on technological and last-mile solutions were directed; further measures were reserved pending those reports.
Issues
- What directions were required to protect pedestrian access and improve parking management and planning in Delhi.
- How pilot parking schemes and technological alternatives should be assessed.
Held
- Pavements must remain usable by pedestrians. The specified Delhi civic bodies were to give encroachers fifteen days’ notice and then remove remaining encroachments at their cost, recoverable as land-revenue arrears. Withdrawal of services for repeat encroachment was a matter for possible rules, not an immediate sanction. (¶¶ 19, 32)
- The Delhi parking rules were to be notified by 30 September 2019 and enforced. Construction permissions were to account for parking needs over the next twenty-five years and requisite facilities. (¶¶ 11, 17, 32)
- Parking plans should preserve emergency access and consider shared facilities, suitable technology and non-polluting last-mile transport. Monthly residential parking charges and compensation for shared institutional facilities were not finally decided. (¶¶ 16, 18, 20, 22, 29, 30, 32)
- EPCA and civic authorities were to assess pilot schemes against the judgment’s considerations. Reports on RFID, parking information systems and last-mile connectivity were required by 30 September 2019; pilot-project reports were expected by 30 December 2019, with further directions reserved. (¶¶ 21, 31, 32)
Result
Directions were issued in the continuing writ proceedings. Compliance on parking-rule notification and the specified viability report was listed for 4 October 2019; the matter was otherwise listed for 13 January 2020. Further directions were reserved after pilot-project reports.