Since October 2025, Anish (name changed), an employee of a private company, has been spending an extra ₹1,800 every month just to park his two-wheeler on MG Road. The return of paid parking in one of Bengaluru’s busiest stretches after almost two years of silence has changed his monthly budget.
In contrast, his colleague Navya R., who commutes from Yelahanka, switched to public transport. While the shift has helped her save some money, it comes with its own problems: longer travel times and poor last-mile connectivity.
But for Anish, public transport is out of the question. His job involves field work and his motorcycle remains essential.
This dilemma in the daily commute may soon become common across Bengaluru. Municipal corporations have called for tenders to introduce paid parking on more than 30 stretches of road as part of a pilot project, signaling a wider push to monetize public spaces and regulate on-street parking.
Refund of paid parking
According to the Bengal Traffic Police (BTP), 291 major road stretches across the city currently allow free parking. Of these, 52 roads were identified as suitable for the introduction of paid parking. If the pilot project produces the desired results, officials say the system could be expanded throughout the city. If all goes according to plan, the paid parking system will be in operation throughout the city by the beginning of April.
Karthik Reddy, Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic), said the list was prepared after considering factors such as traffic flow, space availability and public convenience. The Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) official added that the corporations have further filtered these stretches and floated tenders for implementation in line with the Parking Policy 2.0 proposed by the Directorate of Urban Land and Transport (DULT).
Most civic groups, traffic police officials and city planners welcomed the move.
R. Rajagopal of the Bengaluru Coalition put it this way: “All these years we enjoyed free parking, which was a wasted opportunity for society to generate revenue.”
The idea of resuming paid parking was mooted when the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) was functional and then Chief Commissioner M. Maheshwar Rao directed the Eastern Division to resume paid parking on MG Road. Two months after the new system was introduced, motorists quickly adapted to the mandate as there were few alternatives.
The response not only prompted the City Central Corporation to expand the system, but also influenced other corporations to adopt the model. However, concerns remain about the fare structure, implementation plan and whether the exercise will actually solve traffic congestion.
Why are city corporations pushing for paid parking?
The renewed focus on paid parking coincides with the creation of five new city corporations. On September 2, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar repeatedly emphasized that the division of the city would encourage competition between corporations and open up new sources of revenue. Paid parking turned out to be one such source of income.
V. Ravichandar, a citizen evangelist and urban planner, says that roads are a valuable asset of a city and must be used efficiently. “Paid parking brings order to the streets, discourages long-term occupation of public space and can improve traffic flow when combined with enforcement,” he said.
RK Misra, Independent Director, BSMILE, explained that planned enforcement coupled with systematic paid parking can address micro-level traffic issues, which in turn improves vehicular flow.
The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) in Bengaluru explained the phenomenon: “Honest parking, even in areas where parking is allowed, reduces available space and encourages parking on link roads or secondary roads. When residential parking spaces are increased, minor roads become clogged and congestion spillover indirectly affects major roads as well.” In the case of paid parking, there will be a structured system to accommodate multiple vehicles, he added.
Globally, paid parking is seen as a demand management tool. According to city planners, by charging for parking, cities try to influence travel behavior, discourage the unnecessary use of private vehicles and promote public transport.
However, they also warned that paid parking alone will not reduce traffic congestion. Without complementary measures such as improved public transport, regulation of resident parking and consistent enforcement, the policy risks simply crowding out the problem, they say.
Towing is coming back
In addition to paid parking, BTP is restoring tows to reduce improper parking, although this will be limited to high-density corridors.
While the move may reduce traffic congestion on specific stretches, it may not supplement paid parking to the extent that corporations and BTPs expect, as towing itself is subject to restrictions. In accordance with the parking policy, towing can only be carried out when an illegally parked vehicle is obstructing the movement of pedestrians or the flow of traffic.
The policy further states: “The civic agency may seek to minimize the need for towing vehicles through effective communication and active monitoring of parking lots, as large-scale towing operations usually result in undesirable obstruction to the movement of vehicles on the roads.”
However, this time illegal parking is expected to be costly for violators, which could encourage positive behavior and reduce the problem to some extent. When towing is carried out jointly by both the civic association and the BTP, the fines will be collected by the BTP and the towing fees will be collected by the civic association.
The rates have not yet been finalized, but this could also present enforcement issues.
Challenges to enforcement
One of the main disadvantages of paid parking is spillover into residential areas. For example, Rest House Road is often full of illegally parked vehicles. When paid parking was introduced on MG Road, the traffic police reported an increase in illegal parking along the stretch as people were unwilling to pay for parking. The only way to penalize such behavior is to clamp, but the number of vehicles that can be clamped is limited.
This situation is likely to affect other paid parking zones as well.
Further complicating the issue is that, according to BTP data, there are around 1,100 no-parking zones across the city, which could further exacerbate the problem.
“There should have been a separate plan for residential parking as it is a definite outcome of the implementation of paid parking. Without curbing parking on residential streets, it will turn into a community problem and may also create law and order problems with the potential for verbal altercations and physical confrontations,” the DCP said.
Civic activist Dattatraya Devare said the original draft of the parking policy took this issue into account and also proposed charging for resident parking. However, public opposition forced the DULT to remove this provision.
In such a scenario, according to Devare, there should be adjustments to the prices of paid parking to ensure better enforcement. Currently, two-wheelers charge ₹15 per hour and quad bikes around ₹30 per hour. This price could be burdensome in some areas like ITPL, MG Road and Hoodi where commercial facilities and office space are concentrated. A slight change like reducing the one-wheeler charge to ₹10 per hour could encourage motorists to use the dedicated parking facilities, he suggested.
For example, a paid parking scheme was introduced near Yelahanka New Town a few months ago, with the charge set at ₹10 for two hours. The area has seen a positive response, although resident parking remains an issue.
Rajagopal suggested that parking charges could vary depending on the sections of the road.
Additionally, city corporations must focus on expanding public transport infrastructure, Devare said.
“Expanding the public transport fleet is always beneficial for the city. In fact, there should be room for private players as well,” added Misra.
Bengaluru currently has a BMTC fleet of over 7,000 buses serving nearly 50 million people, even though the city has an estimated population of 1.4 million. This suggests that the country’s largest fleet of public transport vehicles still falls short of the city’s needs. The gap is further widened by poor last-mile connectivity and delays in the expansion of the Namma Metro network. In the absence of a private bus fleet, taxis and autorickshaws have become an expensive option in the city.
Navya, for example, travels daily to MG Road from Yelahanka Phase 4. Either they have to take a direct bus which is infrequent or travel to Majestic by bus and then take a metro train. As a result, they face considerable inconvenience, especially during peak hours.
“Even if I get to the bus stop on time, I have to squeeze in with hundreds of people or miss one bus and wait for the next one. That’s why private vehicles are a desirable option, but due to parking fees, I’m forced to switch to buses,” she said.
With the implementation of paid parking, the civic body should coordinate with the transport agencies to ensure that commuters are not inconvenienced while changing their mode of transport.
The parking policy in particular recognizes such challenges and outlines ways to address them.
Administration and management
The Parking Policy clearly states that parking funds must be reserved and used by the civic agency only for development works related to pedestrian safety, road safety, non-motorized transport (NMT) infrastructure, pavement improvements, pedestrian public space improvements (such as avenue planting), transit infrastructure improvements, public transport subsidies and awareness campaigns on parking and sustainable mobility.
The policy also recommends the use of modern technology to manage parking, including street meters, automatic barriers, CCTV cameras, computerized parking tickets with timers, variable signboards and mobile applications.
It further proposes the creation of an integrated central parking portal operated by a civic agency that would display real-time information on parking availability throughout the city.
However, civic associations have moved forward without addressing these aspects.
A source within the corporation confirmed that no action plan had been prepared to channel the revenue from paid parking and there was no proposal to finance any development project from the revenue. “The primary focus is on raising revenue for new corporations,” the official said.
As a result, the broader objective of the policy remains unfulfilled. The policy envisages using parking revenue to reduce demand for parking by improving sustainable mobility options, so that dependence on private vehicles is reduced over time and land allocated for parking can be reclaimed for more productive uses.
Despite this, civic groups welcome the move, saying paid parking is a must to improve civic sentiment among citizens. However, Navya says, “I would have to go back to my private vehicle because accessing public transport is tiring, especially after a long day at work.”
