No takers yet for operating parking lot in Noida Sec-18

NOIDA: After it missed several deadlines for making the city's first multilevel car park facility in Sector-18 operational, the Noida Authority has once again invited companies for managing operations of the facility.

Officials said that the applications can be filed till December 18, a tender for which will be opened on December 19.

Currently, only one company has come forward with its consent to pursue the operations of the multilevel car parking. The eight-level parking facility will accommodate over 3,000 cars. The project was initiated on July 22, 2013, and was supposed to be complete by July 2015.

However, it has missed several deadlines. The Noida Authority has now set a new deadline of March 2018 for the project.

"The project got delayed because the private agency failed to finish the work by the proposed deadlines. We are expecting that this time the much awaited multilevel car parking management system will not miss the deadline, as the construction work is in its last phase," said SC Mishra, senior project engineer, Noida Authority.

Parking in Sector-18 market is always filled to the brim and vehicles often spill over on to the roads, causing difficulties for visitors and traders, particularly during the weekend.

The facility is expected to address traffic congestion issue in and around Sector-18, which is the city's largest commercial hub.

The Authority has also decided on new parking rates for the Sector-18 parking lot, which are expected to be higher than the present parking rates.

This is also expected to bring an end to the racket of parking mafias, which have been thriving for a long time.

Earlier, the Noida Authority, on several occasions, had invited private companies to file their applications for managing the facility. No company, however, evinced interest.

This is the fifth time that the Authority has opened applications for multilevel car parking.