The Delhi government has decided to build three parking lots in areas along the corridor to ensure free movement of traffic on the first stretch taking off from April 1.

Chief Secretary Rakesh Mehta said this is being done to discourage citizens from parking their vehicles along the road. “On my last visit to the corridor site, a lot of residents complained against the corridor simply because their parking space along the road was being taken up by the lanes for cyclists and pedestrians,” said Mehta who visited the site on February 24.

“Since these places have no parking facilities, people tend to park their vehicles along the road illegally, thereby blocking it,” he added.

With these illegally parked vehicles set to prove disastrous for traffic movement within the new design of segregated lanes between Ambedkar Nagar and Moolchand flyover, the Delhi Integrated Multi Modal Transit System (DIMTS) and the Transport department have decided to create two parking lots by covering a drain passing through Madangir and Pushp Vihar. These parking lots will accommodate around 200 cars.

The two agencies will also take up a third underground parking lot at Shaheed Bhagat Singh Park along Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, which will be initially built by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

According to officials at DIMTS, the drain owned by the MCD is about 16 feet wide and will be covered with concrete slabs. “The corporation has given us the go-ahead. We will now invite private consultants to give us a design,” said a senior DIMTS official.

While the final plan is yet to be approved, officials said the parking lots will come up on build-operate-transfer basis.

However, since it will take some time to build the parking lots, the authorities are already planning to set up a temporary parking lot opposite Birla Public School.