Where is my parking space?

HYDERABAD: Vehicle parking is often given the last priority by the city planners. The idea about allotting parking lot comes to anyone''s mind only when any project is in the final stages of completion.
Such haphazard planning has taken its toll on the precious carriageway at NTR Marg and Necklace Road.
Inadequate provision of parking space on these roads by various departments has led to congestion of the whole road.That these departments are taking up entertainment projects all along the stretch is only making the matters worse.
Traffic jams are not new to this area. Sometimes the traffic is held up for hours together making life hell for common man.
The NTR Marg is also the VIP road as the seat of state administration - secretariat - is located on one end of the road.
Frequently, many VIPs take this road and the police have a tough time in clearing the road of vehicles whenever there is VIP movement.
Accidents are quite common on NTR Marg and Necklace Road with abnormal increase in traffic volume on these roads. Lakhs of people use these roads daily.
Just eight years back, there was no Necklace Road but now at least two lakh people use the road on any given day, said Huda official.
The NTR Garden alone attracts more than 10,000 visitors on working days and double that number on weekends, he added. Lumbini Park, on the same road, attracts nearly 3,000 visitors daily.
Apart from this, Imax theatre which has come up recently has also become one of the major crowd pullers.
Most of the visitors to these places come on their own vehicles from different parts of the city like Dilshukhnagar, Kukatpalli, Charminar among others.
The number of pushcarts, ice cream vendors, display board vehicles, mobile restaurants, tankers filling water from Hussainsagar add to the chaos on the roads around Hussainsagar.
"What is this? Even for coming to Necklace Road, a parking fee is being demanded. It''s better to park on the road instead of parking there and shelling out Rs 5 for the purpose," K Venkateshwarulu, a visitor said.
The planners should allocate parking space first and then demand parking fee, he added.
Another major problem that regular motorists face on the Necklace Road is government permitting the conduct of several festivals at the place.
Recent festivals like Chicken Mela, Kerala Festival, laser shows, air shows, World Aids Day celebration and numerous other exhibitions threw traffic completely out of gear not just at NTR Marg and Necklace Road but also at Khairtabad, Lakdi-ka-pul, Basheerbagh and Tank Bund among other areas.
There is no coordination, and permissions are given by various departments individually for exhibitions or even for taking up the construction of entertainment projects, an MCH official said.
Unless a special traffic management plan is created and special powers given to a separate body, the city will continue to grow haphazardly and traffic management will become a major challenge for future urban planners, the official added.