CHANDIGARH: Yes, it’s official. Despite objections of the municipal councillors, the UT municipal corporation has finally doubled the rates of all the parking lots in the city from Sunday onwards. However, the hiked rates fail to minimize the problems of the commuters and the city’s parking lots are reeling under various problems.
From haphazard parking, congested entry and exit points of the parking lots to missing lanes, the problems are many and solutions none. Most of the parking lots in the city do not have lanes for commercial vehicles, mainly buses and taxies in the parking lots. The missing screens in the parking spaces add to the commuters’ woes.
Earlier if an owner of a four-wheeler was shelling out Rs 10 for the first four hours, now the paid parking contractor will charge Rs 20 for the first four hours. There is a subsequent increase of Rs 20 after every two hours. The outpouring of public anguish has already started surfacing in the city.
On one hand, city-based social group
Pravashi Bhalai Sangathan
burnt the effigy of Chandigarh MP
Kirron Kher at the sector 22/21 light point on Sunday morning. On the other hand,
Chandigarh Beopar Mandal
, an apex body of the traders in the city, is all set to hold a major protest on Monday morning.
These developments show the growing public anger over the hiked rates and that too within a period of three months. Though, the technical team of the MC has given a green signal to the parking lots saying the contractor has been meeting all the parameters of the smart parking project, sources in the MC said there was no inspection at all.
“Though it was a surprise checking, the contractor was well aware of it. Moreover, instead of carrying out a detailed inspection, a checklist was provided to tick the boxes given against the parameters. So, it was a kind of eyewash in the name of the inspection,” sources in the MC said.
The civic body authority made tall claims about the smart paid parking but in reality, all the smart parking solutions were missing even after the launch of so-called smart paid parking project in the city. On the ground, the situation still remains the same, thus giving a severe jolt to the commuters.
Major problems
1. Haphazard parking: The vehicles can be seen parked in a haphazard manner in almost all the paid parking lots. This adds to the woes of commuters because they face a lot of problem moving their vehicles out from the parking spaces.
2. Absence of attendants in the parking lots: As per the contract, the contractor has to deploy attendants in the parking lots. But in reality, the picture is quite different. None of the paid parking lots have attendants to help the commuters park the vehicles.
3. Missing screens:
In Bank Square
paid parking lot, the screen was missing. When asked, the parking attendant sitting at the booth looked uncomfortable. He said the machine has a technical glitch and has been given for repair. The same situation was witnessed in another paid parking lot, situated next to KC cinema. The screen was missing here too.
4. Congested entry and exit points: In most of the parking lots, both entry and exit points are ‘too’ congested. Due to this, people face problems and traffic chaos can also be witnessed.
5. Missing lanes in the parking lots: In most of the paid parking lots, there are no marked lanes to park the vehicles. In the absence of marked lanes, the commuters park vehicles here and there, which results in traffic chaos.
6. Parking of commercial vehicles: Commercial vehicles such as buses and taxis can be easily seen in most of the paid parking lots of the city. These commercial vehicles cover most of the area in the paid parking lots, which add to the woes of the commuters.