Now, SoBo residents to move HC against parking policy

The policy was passed by the general body of the civic body earlier in January and is to be implemented on a pilot basis in the A ward from February. “The civic body has left us no choice but to take the legal route. It is a policy that will affect a large number of residents, still the BMC did not take any public hearings,” said Subhash Motwani, member of the Clean Heritage Colaba Residents Association.

The resident associations have formed a team of five members who will be handling the matter. One of the members from the team, Rajesh Aiya said, “Since the civic body is planning to implement the policy from the first week of February, we will be filing the petition in the coming week.” The residents, who are already supported by BJP MLA Raj Purohit and municipal councillor Vinod Shekhar also approached Dr Ranjit Patil, Minister for Urban Development of Maharashtra regarding a stay order on the parking policy.

Assistant Commissioner Chandrashekar Chore said, “We have already started data collection to understand the ratio between the number of vehicles and the number of parking slots in the ward. As soon as we complete the process, we will implement the policy.” Last week, the residents had also sent a questionnaire to the CM.