One of the most important things people look for when buying a home or office is parking space. With cities becoming more crowded, parking is now a daily struggle—not just for residents or office workers, but especially for visitors.
Many shopping areas and office buildings do not have proper visitor parking. As a result, people often park on the roadside, causing traffic jams and arguments.
Experts say this is not only a problem in old buildings. Even new buildings made under the Comprehensive General Development Control Regulations (CGDCR) fail to provide enough visitor parking.
Not Enough Space or Misuse of It
Sometimes, builders don’t leave enough space for visitors. In other cases, the space is used for other things or taken over by residents for their own use. This leaves visitors with nowhere to park safely.
As per rules, housing projects must reserve at least 10% of total parking for visitors. In commercial buildings, it should be up to 30%.
Calls to Update Parking Rules
Former Chief Town Planner of Gujarat, P.L. Sharma, says that CGDCR rules need to be updated. He believes that commercial buildings should be divided into sub-types so parking needs can be better planned. He also said residential projects should increase visitor parking to 50%.
Residents Also at Fault
Dhruv Patel, President of CREDAI Ahmedabad, said that it’s not always the builder’s fault. Many times, residents misuse the visitor parking spaces. Once the building is handed over, it’s the responsibility of residents and their associations to manage visitor parking properly.
Rules Need Better Implementation
Industry experts say that if developers do not provide the promised parking, residents can complain to authorities like AMC, Auda, or Gujarat RERA. Officials say that even though parking layouts are shown while getting building permissions, builders often make illegal changes later, which causes problems.
Some also pointed out that current CGDCR rules are flawed—for example, counting driveways and ramps as parking space reduces the actual usable area, making the parking shortage worse.