Farmers Movement Archive

City’s parking woes deepen for want of smart solutions

Tribune News ServiceAmritsar, July 29In current times, finding parking space in the city has become a big challenge for everyone, be it a city resident or outsider. For the past few years, there has been a phenomenal rise in the number of vehicles and visitors to the holy city, but new parking lots or spaces have not been provided or widened accordingly.Sad to say, the authorities concerned have failed to provide spacious and more parking lots, leading to congestion or parking problems in most markets. Residents are a perturbed lot as it takes quite a while to find a place for parking their vehicles.Present status of parking spaces in cityThe 446-year-old city has narrow lanes in its interior markets. The open spaces, which were once gardens and bagichis (small open yards), have been encroached upon by people decades ago. Now, there is no major parking lot inside commercial areas of the walled city. The only major parking for visitors to the Golden Temple is the Saragarhi parking lot. It is a five-storey parking lot, which remains overcrowded at all times. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has provided a few small parking lots for two-wheelers near the Golden Temple and a major parking lot is near Gurdwara Shaheedan Sahib. These facilities are insufficient as compared to a large number of devotees visiting shrines on a daily basis in the city. They have no option but to park on the roadside. There are some illegal parking lots in the walled city, which overcharge tourists.Some major commercial centres such as Hall Bazaar, Katra Jaimal Singh, Telephone Exchange, Karmo Deohri, Guru Bazaar Shastari Market, Raja Market, Katra Ahluwalia, Majith Mandi, Loon Mandi, Daal Mandi, etc, have only small parking lots at Kairon Market, Kesri Bagh and Telephone Exchange. Thousands of traders from Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the region visit these areas daily. Besides, before the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, over one lakh tourists and devotees would visit these markets.Even outer areas of the city also face the same problem. Some markets have proper parking spaces but due to mismanagement and haphazard parking residents have to face inconvenience. The parking lots at Ranjit Avenue, Nehru Shopping Complex, the DC office and Bhandari Bridge are being managed poorly. Besides, in the absence of parking spaces, one can see vehicles parked on roadsides in areas like Putligarh Road, GT Road, Majitha Road, Lawrence Road, Mall Road and Batala Road. As a result, a traffic chaos prevails here. In residential areas, a number of clashes over parking space are reported every year.Commercial buildings without parking spaceThere are more than 300 hotels which do not have a parking lot inside the walled city. As per the building bylaws, the hotels can’t operate without in-built parking spaces, but most hotels have no parking space and they are still open. Only shopping malls and some shopping complexes have a parking lot in their basements.Rate list and overchargingThough there is enough space in parking lots, residents prefer to park their vehicle on roadsides. The parking charges of a scooter and a car are Rs 20 and Rs 50 respectively. There is no time slab applicable. As most parking contractors overcharge and misbehave, residents don’t park their vehicles in the parking lots. As there is no rate list put up at most parking lots, contractors demand hefty charges from customers. Though the MC allots parking lots through the e-tendering process, some politically influential persons succeed in getting contracts and fleece visitors.Proposed parking lotssee no headwayThe authorities had proposed a 32-crore multi-level automated car parking to be built at the Kairon Market to address the parking issue in interior areas of the city. Even four years after the announcement, there is no development or progress on the ground. The multi-level automated car parking lot is also proposed to be built at the Fish Market, but no tenders have been floated yet. Similarly, Mayor Karamjit Singh Rintu had proposed to use the old Sabji Mandi as the parking lot, but the MC failed to remove the encroachments from there. There will be no relief for residents for many years to come as even if the construction work of parking lot starts, it will take several years to complete. Last year, parking sensors were installed on the Mall Road and Lawrence Road Chowk by Amritsar Smart City Limited under the Smart City project. That was a pilot project under which once a vehicle was parked on the spot, a message would be flashed on the cell phone of the traffic cop concerned, making it easier for him to take necessary action. There is no further development on that project.MC fails to implement its parking policyEarlier, the Municipal Corporation had five parking lots at Fish Market, Kairon Market, Telephone Exchange, Bhandari Bridge and Kachairi Chowk. Last year, new lots were added in the list for auction, including Old Sabzi Mandi outside Hall Bazaar, KD Hospital to Karm Singh Ward on Circular Road, outside the MC’s Ranjit Avenue office, Town Hall to Subash Juice Bar, Hall Gate to Town Hall, Link road alongside Celebration Mall, outside new DTO Office, District Library to Government College and the Sadar police station to Care Well Hospital. The MC failed to allot contracts for the new parking lots due to being opposed by traders. The trader associations of Hall Bazaar and other markets staged demonstrations against the MC’s move to introduce paid parking outside their shops. They were of the view that if there would be paid parking in the market, fewer customers would visit their markets. Finally, the MC surrendered to the shopkeepers’ demands, and the result is that Hall Bazaar remains congested due to haphazard parking.Varun Khanna, a local activist, who has filed several cases in the Punjab State Service Commission for the betterment of parking lots, said, “The parking rates are too high in the city that residents prefer to park their vehicles on roadsides. It should be Rs 5 or Rs 10 instead of Rs 20 or Rs 50. The time slabs should also be introduced like we see in Chandigarh. The shopkeepers should change their mindset and the MC should implement the odd-even policy for the roadside parking lots in the busy markets.“There are two automated multi-level parking lots in the pipeline under the Smart City Project. The Kairon market project is in the tendering process. But we are facing many problems before starting a technically advanced parking lot in that congested space. We have enhanced the cost of the project but the tendering process is yet to complete. After this, we will start the Fish Market project. It would take two years after the tendering process. We are committed to managing the parking lots under the MC,” said CEO, Smart City Limited-cum-Municipal Corporation Commissioner.

The Tribune

2020-07-30