Mar 31, 2025 06:00 AM IST
MCD’s Greater Kailash 1 automated parking project is 80% complete, delayed due to tree relocation issues, affecting local business. Expected finish: June-July.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) automated multilevel car parking project in Greater Kailash 1 M block market in south Delhi has taken twice as long as its initially estimated construction time and is still only 80% complete. The ₹63.7 crore project is expected to accommodate 399 vehicles in one of the busiest local shopping centres in south Delhi.
MCD officials said they await forest department permission to cut and relocate 18 trees after which pending construction work will be finished. The forest department said tree felling permission has been stayed by the Delhi high court in an ongoing case and “MCD can approach court for permission.”
“The delay in the project has proved to be a double whammy for the market as construction was started three years back on the surface parking lot. So we lost the surface parking area which could accommodate 100-150 cars. Customers now park their cars on the road. Otherwise they avoid coming to the market at all which impacts our business,” said Rajender Sharda, GK 1 M block market association.
Once complete, the parking facility, spread across 2,240 sqm, will be an eight storey structure with space for 57 cars on each floor. It will be based on “shuttle system” based automated car parking. A senior municipal official said the shuttle system permits both horizontal and vertical movement of platforms carrying the vehicle. “The user leaves the vehicle at a designated spot. The automated parking system will select the floor as well as the available vacant spot on that floor where the vehicle can be parked. All the information will be available in the card that will be given to the user,” said the official.
The project was conceptualised almost a decade ago to address frequent traffic jams in the area around market but it remained stuck in the planning stage with non-agreement over the scale and design of parking facility. It was finally approved by the erstwhile south MCD in November 2021 and construction work began in March 2022. The south MCD had announced that the project would be completed in 18 months.
“Work on the site is in progress. Once we get tree relocation permission for 18 trees, the pending work on this section of construction site will be taken up,” an MCD official said.
An official from the forest department told HT that permission for tree felling has been stayed by the Delhi high court in an ongoing case and the municipal “corporation can approach the court to seek the permission.” The civic official cited above said that the completion of the project depends on permission from the forest department but the project is likely to be completed by the end of June or early July.
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