Pay for traffic jams you create: Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s message to developers

Ahmedabad: Amdavadis know their daily churn. SG Road inches along at 7pm. The Prahladnagar choke point on a Monday afternoon. A car jutting half onto the footpath outside a tea stall on Ashram Road. For years, traffic management in Ahmedabad has remained a game of response — cones, police personnel, and complaints. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is now betting on something new — making developers bear the cost of congestion they generate, even before they do so.

At the core of the new Comprehensive Traffic and Road Safety Policy are three concepts. First, “no large commercial development will proceed without a mandatory traffic impact assessment (TIA)” — a legal, engineering-based estimate of how many extra vehicles a project will bring onto Ahmedabad’s burdened roads, and what the developer must do to offset that load. “A key precursor to TIA rollout is that the precise applicability area and thresholds — the criteria that define a ‘large establishment’ — are yet to be finalised by AMC,” said a senior civic official.

Second, a new building rating system will evaluate structures on environmental, economic, and community impact, nudging the construction sector toward accountability. Third, and most visible to citizens, a shared parking circular will compel malls, offices, and institutions to open private parking to the public — because, as AMC has stated clearly, parking on public roads is a privilege, not a right.

Penalties for violations are far from symbolic. A second breach doubles the administrative charge. A third triples it. Pending dues can stall trade licence renewals. Dump building debris across more than 25 square metres of road, and you face a Rs 50,000 penalty. Place branded chairs on a footpath? That invites a Rs 1,000 fine. AMC has also set up a dedicated Parking Cell to audit basements and podiums — as across the city, spaces meant for vehicles have quietly turned into storage units, offices, even retail outlets.

Varun Patel, a developer said, “If a developer provides free visitor parking spaces, they should be granted an equivalent amount of free FSI in return. For instance, in a building with 150 offices, offering free FSI for at least 50% of the visitor parking requirement will directly encourage developers to allocate ample parking spaces for visitors.” Kruti Chawda, a teacher, said, “The road gets very chaotic when construction is taking place. This is a great move by govt to have the builder appoint someone for managing the traffic in those areas. The traffic police already have many other places to take care of and if they have to manage such spaces as well then it is bound to become very troublesome.”