After nearly six years since its conceptualisation the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has finally had a breakthrough of implementing a smart parking project for Mumbai. The civic authorities are now in the final stage for finalising a consultant that will be integrating all the existing parking spaces in Mumbai into a digital dashboard which will be accessible to the common citizens through a mobile application or web portal.

The BMC had mooted this idea of creating a digitised parking system for the first time back in 2020, however the plan never came to fruition. Today, the administration will table a proposal on the civic standing committee to finalise a contractor for developing the interface. The BMC has earmarked an initial budget of Rs 3 crore for this project.

Mumbai faces a crisis of land availability and with the increasing vehicular density every year, the issue of parking has come out to be one of the key civic issues of Mumbai with a dearth of parking spaces.

At present, BMC operates 26 – off street parking lots – which includes parking facilities in public and private institutions that are run by the authorities. In addition to this the civic body has more than 350 on-street parking lots in Mumbai which means vehicles are allowed to park in and around the periphery of traffic islands, lanes and bylanes in Mumbai.

Mumbai has the highest vehicle density among metro cities. According to the state government’s data Mumbai has a vehicle density of 2,300 cars in every kilometer (KM) which is the highest among all metro cities. The government’s data also shows that the number has increased exponentially in the previous years. In 2019 the city’s vehicle density stood at 1,840 per KM while in 2014 it stood at 1,150 per KM.

Besides this, the Regional Transport Office (RTO) data shows that 3.02 lakh vehicles were registered in Mumbai in 2025 alone. Earlier in 2024, around 2.79 lakh vehicles were registered.

How will this interface work ?
The proposed system will integrate BMC’s existing parking space along with private parking spaces which are available inside shopping malls and commercial plazas. The civic body will also rope in residential associations to lease out their parking spaces during the day time for the purpose of using them as public parking lots. Meanwhile, motorists can see the available parking areas in every ward in their mobile application. This application will allow vehicle owners to book a parking space in advance before they reach their destination.

“If someone is travelling towards Colaba from Mahim then he or she can see which are the parking facilities that are available in his destination and book a preferred location accordingly by selecting the space and paying online. Once he is at the destination the person can park their car without any hassle. The booking system will be similar to how we book seats in a movie theater,” an official privy to the project told the Indian Express.

The official said that the emergence of this application will discard the issue of finding parking space in public areas enabling citizens to book a parking space in advance.

“This will be an official dashboard for parking infrastructure. In case the parking spaces run out then citizens can opt for public transportation to travel somewhere, which in return will reduce the chances of vehicle congestion on the roads,” the official said.

The civic authorities maintained that the dashboard will be created in the next one year with a pilot parking project to be started in five wards initially of which two will be from western suburbs , two from island city and one from the eastern suburbs.