Decade-Old Parking Projects Still Stalled At New Friends Colony, Jangpura
New Delhi: Seventeen years after the proposal was placed, work on multilevel parking facilities at New Friends Colony and Jangpura still remains incomplete. The facilities, envisioned to ease traffic congestion in the nearby areas, were proposed in 2008 and allotted to a contractor before the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
While the facility at New Friends Colony is partially functional, the Jangpura unit is yet to become operational.
At the New Friends Colony facility, which was meant to house over 405 vehicles, only two of the three basements are operational, reducing its capacity to around 350. The third basement remains unusable due to perpetual waterlogging caused by high groundwater levels and an active aquifer. "We come around 1 pm daily to collect and drain the water through a pipe," said Bhagwan Prasad Meena, MCD's pump operator.
To manage the collected water, MCD has dug a pit nearby, intended for use in watering plants. However, with the monsoon fast approaching, this temporary fix is becoming useless, as the pit could overflow with rainwater before the system is fully in place.
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Safety concerns at the site are also pressing, with water bottles and toys strewn across the third basement, which is perennially flooded. Exits at the facility are either broken or left unlocked, and the staircase to the third basement is completely unlit.
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Children playing in the adjacent playground often venture down to retrieve balls. "This is the only playground close to our house," they said when asked why they risked entering the dark and unsafe space.
Meanwhile, the Jangpura parking lot, designed for over 300 vehicles, has been closed for more than two years. No construction activity is underway at the three-storey parking facility. "The parking lot has been shut…with no work happening at all.
The colony residents are forced to park in front of our shops, causing daily inconvenience," said Mohammad Shoaib, vice-president of the traders' association at Guru Nanak Market, Jangpura.
With no designated parking, residents and tenants park haphazardly around the closed facility, exceeding the saturation point.
Amit Kaushik, general secretary of Jangpura RWA, blamed the delay on a payment dispute. "The construction has been stalled due to the strife between MCD and the contractor… With the new standing committee chairperson elected, we hope a fresh tender will be issued to complete the work."
He also cited a Delhi High Court order dated Nov 11, 2023, which directed MCD to "take appropriate measures to ensure construction and completion within a period of six months from today."
An MCD official said, "With the new standing committee in place, we expect a fresh approach within the next 10 days. The pending work at these parking lots will be addressed through the private public partnership method."
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