Every Saturday evening, Sudarshan Yadav, a real estate broker living in J.P. Nagar in south Bengaluru, sets off for Church Street in the city centre with a sense of dread — not for the long commute, but for the final hurdle: finding a parking slot. “It takes me over 10 minutes just to circle around for parking. Some days, I have had to park half a kilometre away and walk,” he says.

Prajwal Kumar, a software engineer, says, “By the time I leave for work, the minimal parking space available at Peenya Metro Station is full. Sometimes, I go one or two stations ahead and find parking. Otherwise, I end up driving to work. With no proper last-mile connectivity, the lack of adequate parking space around metro stations is also discouraging many from using the service for commuting.”

Across Bengaluru, the struggle for parking has become an everyday ordeal, affecting office-goers, traders, shoppers, and residents alike.

Bengaluru’s rapid transformation into India’s tech capital and unplanned growth have brought with them a surge in vehicles, overwhelming the city’s infrastructure. According to official data, Bengaluru is now home to over 1.23 crore registered vehicles, with two-wheelers accounting for more than 70%. The growing affluence of the middle class has also played a role, with more households owning multiple vehicles. However, the city’s parking infrastructure has failed to keep pace, leading to unregulated on-street parking and resultant traffic congestion.

Parking woes in Bengaluru are a symptom of deeper urban issues. The city has grown in an unplanned and fragmented manner, with residential areas transforming into commercial hubs without accompanying changes in infrastructure. Many areas have narrow roads that can barely accommodate two vehicles side by side, let alone offer parking for hundreds of visitors. The failure of the city’s civic body, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), to implement zonal regulation for commercial activities has worsened the situation. In places such as Indiranagar in east Bengaluru and J.P. Nagar, owing to commercial activities in residential areas, vehicles are illegally parked on roads with some even blocking entrances to residences.

“Parking woe is just one of the symptoms of the rampant illegal commercialisation, especially in residential areas. The law is clear. It prescribes an adequate parking space that each commercial establishment should provide. But nobody is following these norms, trade licences are being doled out without an inspection of the business premises and in several cases, huge businesses are running even without trade licences,” says Sneha Nandihal of I Change Indiranagar, a citizen initiative.

Public transport options — though improving — remain inadequate or poorly integrated. Metro connectivity is still limited, and last-mile connectivity continues to be a major challenge. As a result, dependence on private vehicles remains high.

Traffic congestion due to haphazard on-street parking has worsened as Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) suspended vehicle towing following a public outcry against it in February 2022. Currently, the BTP clamps the tires of the vehicles parked in no-parking areas. However, this measure does not clear the vehicles from the roads and offers no solution to improving traffic congestion.

Recently, Home Minister G. Parameshwara said the State government was contemplating reintroducing towing at least in high-density corridors and the central business district (CBD). However, months after this announcement, towing has not been reintroduced. Government sources said no such formal proposal is under consideration.

It is not that there has never been a holistic parking plan for Bengaluru. The Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) drafted the Parking Policy 2.0 in 2012, providing for even area-level parking management plans to tackle the parking menace. However, this policy argues for privatised paid parking, a non-populist option that no government has had the political will to accept and enforce, yet.

Parking Policy 2.0

The Parking Policy 2.0 was approved by the government in 2012. It emphasises the need for demand-based paid parking, especially in high-traffic areas such as the CBD. The core objective is to discourage the excessive use of private vehicles by making parking more expensive and difficult to find, thereby promoting public transport and non-motorised mobility.

A comprehensive framework aimed at transforming how parking is managed in Bengaluru, the policy also addresses issues such as rapid urbanisation, increased vehicular ownership, and strained infrastructure by rethinking how space is utilised for vehicle parking.

According to the policy document, the lack of an organised parking system has exacerbated traffic issues, particularly due to unregulated on-street parking and underutilised off-street facilities. These problems are attributed to factors such as inefficient public transportation, inadequate infrastructure for walking and cycling, and the absence of pricing mechanisms to control demand.

The policy proposes four strategic transitions to navigate this crisis effectively — from chaotic to organised parking, from free to paid parking, from government-managed to market-driven parking systems, and from passive enforcement to active parking demand management, says a DULT official.

These objectives are supported by 11 detailed policy directives, including preparing area-level parking management plans, implementing structured parking charges, streamlining on-street and residential parking, expanding off-street infrastructure, and introducing specialised regulations for areas influenced by transit-oriented development.

One of the policy’s cornerstones is the introduction of paid parking based on demand and location. Pricing is designed to discourage long-term and on-street parking while promoting off-street and park-and-ride options. A permit system is proposed for residential streets, where on-street parking will be regulated and limited to avoid misuse and congestion. The policy also encourages private participation in developing parking facilities and stresses the use of technology for efficient monitoring, data sharing, and enforcement.

The management of transport and freight vehicle parking is also a priority, with time-based restrictions and designated lorry terminals proposed to reduce inner-city congestion. For school transport, the policy mandates dedicated parking and pick-up/drop-off zones to ensure safety and reduce road obstructions, the official says.

A central parking portal was proposed in the policy to unify public parking data, enabling users to access real-time availability and make reservations. The policy aims to integrate all public and private parking into this system, promoting transparency and efficient space usage. Revenue generated from parking is proposed to be reinvested into sustainable urban mobility initiatives, including improvements in pedestrian infrastructure, cycling paths, and public transport facilities.

A patchy rollout and poor results

However good the policy may be, it is as good as its implementation. The BBMP began implementing the Parking Policy 2.0 only in parts and never in its entirety. For instance, the civic body introduced paid parking on 85 stretches of roads in the CBD and a few roads in busy hubs such as Koramangala in the city’s southeast. The pilots have seen success to a limited extent, mainly due to the lack of enforcement against haphazard on-street parking around these paid parking zones.

A BBMP official says traders complained that paid parking discourages footfall, particularly for small businesses relying on walk-in customers. A contractor who maintains the paid parking system at Indiranagar says, “The app-based system is inconvenient and lacks adequate signage or assistance. This elicited backlash from commuters. The BBMP first rolled out the app-based system and later suspended it, only to bring it back without making any changes. The number of vehicles arriving at parking spots is more than the slots available. This makes it nearly impossible to avoid parking in no-parking zones.”

Meanwhile, following recommendations to expand off-street parking infrastructure, the BBMP built many multi-level parking (MLP) facilities, the latest one being at Freedom Park. While the MLP facility on J.C. Road, near Garuda Mall, and K.G. Road — all in the CBD — and at several traffic and transit management centres in different localities are performing relatively well, with weekday occupancy rates reaching nearly 70%, indicating a steady usage, the facility at Freedom Park paints a different picture. Despite being in the city centre, it has failed to attract adequate users. BBMP officials attribute this to the lack of strict parking enforcement in the surrounding areas, especially in Gandhinagar. Unless the traffic police enforce a clear no-parking policy on adjacent streets, motorists will continue to opt for on-street parking, rendering the Freedom Park MLP underutilised, a BBMP official says.

While the BBMP is building an MLP at Gandhi Bazaar in South Bengaluru, Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. has proposed to build MLPs at K.R. Puram and Majestic metro stations.

How to drive behavioural change?

The parking plan should be viewed from a demand-management angle and not supply, says Ashish Verma, transportation expert and professor at IISc. “We still treat roads as spaces for free storage of private vehicles, rather than prioritising mobility, pedestrians, and public transport. The Parking Policy 2.0 has a somewhat holistic approach, but it was not implemented. One cannot go on establishing parking slots that will encourage people to buy cars and bring them on the road. Instead, the governments or civic bodies must incentivise public transport,” he says.

Experts have been arguing, and the Parking Policy 2.0 also recommends that parking spaces should be made hard to find and expensive and at the same time adequate public transport should be provided to push people to leave private vehicles at home.

At the core of the parking problem is the need to drive behavioural change, for which several unpopular decisions need to be enforced, which no political dispensation has been willing to do for over 12 years since the policy was approved. 

Leave alone forcing commuters to shift from private to public transport, which is a big behavioural change, the city has been resisting the first step itself — implementing paid parking and also towing of vehicles from no-parking zones. Without strict enforcement against wrongful parking on our streets, there is no way we can ease congestion or make paid parking zones viable.

Vehicles parked at the paid facility near Mysuru Road Metro Station in Bengaluru.
| Photo Credit:
K. MURALI KUMAR

Tushar Giri Nath, who was the Chief Civic Commissioner when The Hindu spoke with him and is now the civic body’s Administrator and Additional Chief Secretary, Urban Development Department, admitted that enforcement has failed. “Without enforcement, we cannot make paid parking viable. The BBMP is discussing with Bengaluru Traffic Police to empower contractors who put up private parking infrastructure to enforce paid parking. We want these contractors to be able to tow vehicles wrongfully parked within an impact zone of their facility. Otherwise, erratic parking will not stop, and parking facilities will not be viable. In residential areas that have many empty plots, we want to empower plot owners to not only put up parking infrastructure but also tow vehicles on the road,” he says. Meanwhile, the BTP is also likely to reintroduce towing at least in the CBD and high-density corridors, sources say.

In its recent budget, the BBMP relaxed the height of the stilt (on-ground parking) from 3 metres to 4.5 metres to accommodate a mechanical multilevel car parking facility. This will likely be embraced by apartments, for providing two parking spaces per flat. The civic body also rationalised the parking fee component of the property tax and has made it uniform across the city.

Meanwhile, the public transport infrastructure of Bengaluru is expected to grow multifold in a few years. “Currently, we have 74 km of Namma Metro network and 66 stations. By 2030, we will likely have a total network of 368 km, including Namma Metro and suburban rail, and we will have over 230 stations. We are on the cusp, and we are all set to make a big leap in a short time. By then, we need to work on integrating all these modes of transport with Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporationbuses and other shared riding options for last-mile connectivity,” says Srinivas Alavilli, a fellow at World Resources Institute – India.

Responding to demands for adequate parking spaces at metro and suburban rail stations in the city, Alavilli argues that given the vehicle density of Bengaluru, park and ride solutions are unlikely to work. “Parking facilities can be given at stations at the end of metro lines such as Madavara and Challaghatta. If we have to acquire land and provide parking, then vehicle owners should be ready to shell out commercial rates. But our focus must be to provide seamless last-mile connectivity to make people choose public transport over private transport,” he says.

Published – May 02, 2025 07:48 am IST