The Pune Municipal Corporation has decided to dismantle the city’s first fully automated multi-level parking facility located at the Sambhaji Garden premises on JM Road.

The 20-storey Vertipark, launched in 2007, suffered a major technical snag five years later and has remained defunct since. The civic body judged the mechanised steel structure to be risky and said that repair expenditure would exceed the facility’s useful life.

The facility was built as a mechanised system designed to maximise parking area while using minimal urban space and was able to accommodate 60 cars. The PMC stated that it has been unable to identify an expert agency capable of repairing, maintaining and operating the installation skillfully, rendering continued operation unviable. The chairperson of the PMC standing committee said dismantling was approved because the structure is beyond repair and not financially feasible.

The project had been implemented at a cost of Rs 25 million (mn) and the civic body noted that the scale of investment no longer matches the return from a facility that has not been in use for years. The PMC added that dismantling will be undertaken at a rate of Rs 29,000 per metric tonne (t) and that the total outlay will be determined only after the demolition work proceeds. Officials are in the process of tendering the work and have yet to finalise a date for the dismantling operation.

The decision reflects a wider challenge for municipal authorities in balancing innovative urban infrastructure with long term operability and maintenance capacity. The civic body indicated that similar mechanised solutions must be assessed for local availability of technical skills and sustainable financial models before further deployment. Residents and commuters in the vicinity will be informed once the schedule is finalised.