Title - Parking lot near N Delhi station hits roadblock

A much-hyped parking lot - supposed to be Delhi's biggest, with a capacity to hold around 13,000 cars -  on  Qutub Road between New Delhi Railway Station and Sadar Bazaar is still far from being a reality.
The railways, which had to transfer its land to the erstwhile


Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), seems to have pulled out of the plan and the newly formed North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) is also not interested in pushing the plan further.
The railways had planned to turn New Delhi Railway Station into a world-class station and to create enough parking space for its station and adjoining Sadar Bazaar which is a wholesale hub. Also, a multi- storey parking lot spread over around two acres was to come up in partnership with the civic body. The Railways were supposed to transfer a portion of their land to the municipal corporation for the project. 

"The Railways had promised us a piece of their land, approximately over an acre. They have backtracked on their promise and did not also attend the

meeting held a few months ago. We want to build the parking as we'll also earn a good revenue from it. We also have some land there, from where the existing surface parking lot is being run. It will be converted into a smaller multi-storey parking through private public partnership if we don't get an approval from the Railways," said a senior officer from the North Delhi Municipal Corporation .

If built, the Qutub Road parking will be Delhi's biggest parking lot with the capacity of over 13,000 cars which would solve the parking problem of Sadar Bazaar and other adjoining areas.

"Originally, there was a plan to build a 15-storey parking lot along with restaurants and other commercial establishments," the officer added.

However, the Railways say they did not receive any communication from the civic body. Moreover, they said there wasn't any clarity over their world-class station project and they were in no position to go ahead with the parking lot plan.

"We had partnered with the unified Municipal Corporation of Delhi for this project keeping in view the world class station project at the New Delhi station. Since, there's no clarity on that project, we cannot transfer the land to the corporation till the time we receive a nod for the world-class project from the rail board," said a senior railway officer requesting anonymity.