Bhubaneswar: The special purpose vehicle to carry out the smart city projects is coming up with a parking master plan for the city wherein officials will regulate the existing parking services.

The Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) has invited a proposal from potential bidders for a plan.

The aim to engage a consultant is to get expert help in devising a detailed parking policy and master plan to manage parking services in a scientific manner.

In the request for proposal, the BSCL officials mentioned that Bhubaneswar was one of the fastest growing cities in the country with its population increasing by 30 per cent between 2001 and 2011.

According to the calculations based on the decadal growth, the city's population is to reach 20 lakh in 2030.

"Increase in the city's population has led to an increase in urban mobility. According to the Comprehensive Development Plan, 49 per cent of the registered vehicles in the city are two-wheelers and another 11 per cent are cars. Over the past five years, almost three lakh vehicles have been added on the roads of Bhubaneswar," said a BSCL official.

The civic authorities now operate 76 on-street and off-street parking lots in various parts of the city, besides executing two multi-level car parking facilities at Unit-II and Saheed Nagar.

However, the present parking spaces are not sufficient for the growing number of vehicles.

"The lack of parking facilities is emerging as a critical issue in the city. Around 90 per cent of authorised public parking spaces in the city are on-street that occupies road space and worsens the congestion and safety of several city roads. We need to come up with more comprehensive plan for this service," said the official.

According to the proposal, the BSCL aims to adopt a two-pronged approach to address parking issues such as developing a city-level parking policy and another to develop a pan-city parking management plan.

The aim of the parking policy would be to guide the development of planned parking facilities, while the parking management plan will take care of existing parking scenario and suggest measures for improvement. Officials aim to implement the new plans by August.

"The implementation will begin shortly after the consultant provides its report. We are already taking several steps to improve the parking services in the city while this new plan will be an add-on to our efforts," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.