India, Oct. 3 -- As part of its measures to combat winter pollution in the national capital, the Delhi government announced a doubling of parking charges from November 1, 2026 to February 28, 2027, to discourage use of personal vehicles and thereby lower pollution. But beyond the winter months, Delhi still has to deal with rising vehicular density and shrinking parking space. Unreserved parking in residential areas is not only an elite capture of public land for private purpose, it has also often resulted in serious hostility between neighbours. The Delhi Master Plan-2047 (MPD-2047) aims to disincentivise the use of private vehicles, encourage more public transport use, and encourage walking and cycling. It moves away from "expanding parking capacity" to "managing parking demand" and rationalise parking norms by capping parking spaces for private vehicles and introducing strict space limits.It proposes dynamic and congestionpricing for parking cars in high-demand areas like employment, commercial, cultural, and transport hubs, and significantly higher on-street parking fee within 500-metres of a multi-level parking facility. MPD-2047 proposes a two-tier institutional framework for regulating parking: First, a centralised Unified Parking Body to regulate and oversee all parking to eliminate institutional fragmentation; and second, decentralised Micro-Level Zoning and Planning, which includes mapping out distinct Parking Management Areas (PMAs) covering neighbourhoods, local markets, and residential zones and formulation of localised Parking Area Management Plans (PAMPs) jointly with resident welfare associations, market associations, and transit sector experts. For residential areas, approximately twocar spaces per unit and a phased approach for regulating on-street parking through a system of permits and linking registration of newvehicles to the availability of parking spaceare to be mandated. Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Bengaluru have parking policies, or are considering one, to enable ULBs to charge for on-street residential parking. But implementation has been lacking. What can be done to change this? First, feasible parking lease and permit charges, as well as penalties, need to be worked out. Second, implementing a policy for residential paid parking needs awareness generation, to drive up people's willingness to pay. Third, political support for paid residential parking needs to be generated at the local, state, and central levels. And fourth, space saving facilities such as automated puzzle parking need to be created near residential areas. Delhi has more than two million four-wheelers and about six million two-wheelers. At Rs.1,500 a month for four-wheelers and Rs.300 a month for two-wheelers - assuming that 75% of cars and 50% of two-wheelers are parked on the street - it can generate a revenue of about Rs.3,800 crore every year. Imagine the windfall for Delhi (property tax in FY26 stood at Rs.3,100 crore). A wide range of improved services can be provided with this additional income: better last-mile connectivity for buses and metro, more walkable footpaths, air pollution mitigation, and more parks, playgrounds, and green area. Against this backdrop, it is imperative that MPD-2047 paves the way for speedy implementation of paid residential parking....