The Meghalaya Cabinet has approved the Meghalaya Urban Parking Policy 2025, introducing a structured mechanism to regulate on-street parking in urban areas. Under this policy, parking on roadsides will no longer be free, and a zonal task force will oversee its phased implementation. The initiative is part of the broader Comprehensive Mobility Plan aimed at streamlining urban traffic management.
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma stated, “The state government has done a rough estimate, and we actually had people watch Laitumkhrah, see the streets, how many cars were parked every day. We did the same for Police Bazar, the same for Bara Bazar. So, like that, we did the same exercise in all the main areas and roughly figured out that about 1,500 to 2,000 vehicles park in each of these locations daily on the street.”
Sangma highlighted the financial implications, stating, “Based on that kind of number, we made calculations. Even if you take ₹20 per vehicle for parking for an hour or two, we’re looking at plus-minus about ₹40 crores annually in terms of revenue that would possibly come in. But as I said, it’s not about the revenue so much but more about regulating this entire process so we can streamline things and maybe provide better traffic movement at large.”
The Chief Minister elaborated on the implementation, saying, “We have passed it today, the policy is in place, and now the zonal task force will be sitting. Of course, it will roll out as the process continues, but I expect that within a month, two months’ time, we will see in a phased manner—whichever zones pick up faster will be implemented much, much faster. So I expect one month, two months, to a maximum of three months. We’ll see this whole thing going out because, of course, it requires a lot of coordination with many departments, and hopefully, this will also, as I said, help in regulating the overall parking randomly on the roadside. There will be some revenue, which will again be shared with different stakeholders. We don’t know how much will be coming in actual amounts. But I’m just telling you that we did a rough estimate.”
With increasing urbanization and traffic congestion, the lack of a structured parking fee mechanism has posed significant challenges, with concerns raised by local Dorbars and communities. Sangma emphasized, “There is no mechanism to take fees for vehicles that are parked on the road. There is no mechanism to monitor them. This has been something that the police have been asking for, the Urban Affairs Department, the public at large, and even the localities, the local headmen, and the Dorbars have expressed their concern over this.”
The policy divides the city into different zones, ensuring active participation from local communities for its proper implementation. “The locality people will be very much involved in order to ensure that this is implemented in a proper manner, and we are hopeful that this will regulate the parkings that take place on the street and create a system where certain fees are charged. At the same time, people don’t just park randomly. Specific zones will be given on the streets where you can park and where you cannot park,” Sangma said.
Public-private partnerships will also be encouraged to create additional parking spaces in the city. “There are a lot of areas and lands which belong to the locality or different organizations that are ready to work with the government in order to have a public-private partnership and put up a parking space in those areas. This policy will facilitate that procedure. If some organization or the Dorbar or the development committee has land and they would like to convert that into a parking lot, the government will support them financially to create the parking lot and work in tandem with them to provide more parking space in the city,” the Chief Minister added.
The new policy is part of a broader Comprehensive Mobility Plan, which was passed last year to address traffic and parking concerns, particularly in Shillong but also in other growing urban areas of the state.