The recent parking lot bridge collapse at the Commonwealth
Games in Delhi, India, that I mentioned in yesterday’s blog once again exposes
India’s infrastructure difficulties at a time when the country should be impressing
the world as China did during the 2008 Summer Olympics.
“The chaos surrounding the Commonwealth Games exposes how
far India still needs to go in executing on big-ticket projects and building
infrastructure of the kind that helps make China an economic powerhouse,” says Mumbai-based
journalist Tony Munroe in a Reuters article today.
“India ranks 51st overall in the World Economic Forum
competitiveness index, but for infrastructure it fell 10 places to 86th this
year,” Munroe continues. “Inadequate supply of infrastructure ranked as the
most problematic factor for doing business in the country.”
Munroe also cites specifics related to parking
infrastructure, stating, “Visitors to Delhi's new Terminal 3 this summer had to
wade through virtual rivers running through its parking lot caused by heavy
rains and poor drainage.”
Not only is there an issue about infrastructure performance
and safety, but simply the need for parking spaces as well.
“India’s vehicular production is growing at over 15 per cent
annually and urban population is increasing as more and more people shift to
cities seeking opportunities,” explains Manish Motwani, Director, Kinetic
Hyundai Elevator & Movement Technologies Ltd, in an interview posted on
projectsmonitor.com on September 6.
“As most of our cars are moving on roads 20 per cent of the
time and remain parked for the remaining 80 per cent, we already have a parking
crisis at hand,” Motwani continues. “It will need government intent to find a
solution for this now and gear up for situations 20 years hence. We seriously
need legislations and bylaws that stipulate number of car spaces for every built-up
area or household.”
“Automated parking is the only solution to help us decongest
our roads and reduce air and noise pollution, but these systems are not very
popular in India,” he adds. “Current
demand is confined to large cities and is slowly percolating to mini metros.
The fact remains that most of the promoters and builders do not provide for
actual demand for car parking and government has not proactively worked on
enhancing public parking facilities.”
I wrote an article for Parking
World on the challenges of India’s growing parking industry last September.
A year later, it appears the country still has a long way to go.
Pete Goldin