AHMEDABAD: After dragging the project for nearly 20 years, when the state government is to finally realize the first phase of metro rail in August, a crucial aspect of the project is still missing – the decision to earmark public parking plazas. Last mile connectivity is considered crucial for the success of public transit systems.
The Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) had identified 58 large plots along the metro rail and BRTS routes for general parking. Yet to be approved, the plan has been gathering dust in the state urban development department for the past four years.
The Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) had prepared 28 Local Area Plans (LAPs) along the cumulative 40km metro rail and BRTS routes — AUDA calls these transit-oriented zones (TOZs).
Along these transit routes, AUDA identified 58 parking plots with a cumulative area of 20.44 lakh sq ft. “Any further delay by the state government in approving the LAPs and the parking plots will lead to the space going to private construction schemes. At present, some 250 new commercial and residential projects are passed every year within these LAPs. The builders are coming up with schemes. Pending approval from the state administration, the spaces for social infrastructure like roads are being lost to private schemes,” admits a senior AUDA official.
Most of these parking plots are in the western part of the city and need to be acquired by the state government, said a senior AUDA official. TOZs are buffer spaces covering 200 metres on either side of the BRTS and metro rail corridors.
Here, special development permissions, like an FSI of 4, are given to ensure taller home and office buildings. Also, the parking requirement for the TOZs was reduced from 50% of the built-up area to 35%. The TOZs were first approved in 2014 as part of Ahmedabad’s decadal development plan for 2021.
In the finalized plan in 2018, 160km of BRTS and metro rail routes were earmarked as TOZ. “Initially, in the western part of the city, we had earmarked 12 LAPs along the TOZ routes. Of these, three LAPs belonged to the metro rail route and nine to the BRTS. The area covered under these plans was 1,752 hectares,” added the AUDA official.
