Too many cars, but few places to park them

BHUBANESWAR: Sunday's daylight stabbing of a man running an illegal parking lot in the city's Kharavel Nagar has not only sent shockwaves down the spines of the residents of this neighbourhood but also brought to the fore the nagging civic problem of paucity of parking space in the capital.
Most roads in the city choke with parked vehicles leaving very little space for other cars to have a smooth passage.Huge funds have been spent to broaden and repair roads, but this has not had any positive impact on traffic flow. If half the roads and lanes in front of commercial establishments and corporate offices are going to be taken up for parking, how can vehicles find the right of passage, asked a commuter. While the number of vehicles vying for space on roads has gone up, neither the civic body nor the police has been able to enforce rules. Both the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the police keep blaming each other for the traffic mess. "It is the BMC's duty to provide parking space, but to check illegal parking is the job of the police," said BMC commissioner Vishal Dev.
Big markets and malls have become nightmare zones for shoppers who have to do several rounds before they find a patch to park. "I have decided to go shopping in an auto-rickshaw so that I have no parking problem. And wherever you park, a person with a piece of paper comes to collect fees. There is no one to regulate them," rued Mahendra Satapathy.
Ironically, among the 14 authorized parking places allotted by the BMC, some are on important roads. For example, the parking lot in front of Unit-I market between Raj Mahal Square and AG Square, takes up half the road leading to perpetual traffic congestion.
The parked vehicles not only reduce road width significantly, they also cause major traffic bottlenecks and sometimes trigger accidents. Sahid Nagar, Satya Nagar, Kharavela Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Bapuji Nagar, Unit-I and Unit-II markets, and Cuttack Road are glaring examples of stretches overrun by parked vehicles.
Official sources said, the City Management Group, comprising members of BMC, Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), the police and state government, has been working on a parking policy. "Once the policy is framed it would be easier for us to enforce rules," a senior police officer said, adding that as of now they have been lifting vehicles parked on roads and imposing fine. "But unless we provide people with an alternative place for parking, they don't have an option but to park on roads," he felt.
Even though the BDA has made it mandatory for big commercial buildings to have 60 per cent of the floor area reserved for parking, very few are abiding by the rules. A large number of shopping malls, marriage halls, hotels and restaurants do not have sufficient parking space.