Parking troubles come full circle on Ring Road

Surat: Vishnu Sharma, a textile wholesaler from Varanasi, visits textile markets on Ring Road for purchase of saris, dress material and other fabrics twice every six months.

Last time when he was in the city, he wanted to hire a taxi for the whole day, but the taxiwalla refused saying there was no parking space on Ring Road. The 2.5 kilometre stretch of Ring Road houses 165 textile markets with more than 70,000 shops. Out of the 165 markets, only 30 textile markets have parking facilities. Ring Road is a 200-foot wide road and one of the busiest in the Diamond City. It has a vehicular density of nearly one lakh passenger car units (PCU) as nearly 25,000 tempos and 8,000 other delivery vehicles are present at this stretch during peak hours.

Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh, transportation expert from Sardar Vallabhabhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT), said, “Ring Road needs a skywalk type arrangement to join textile markets in the area. This will allow people to move from one place to other. Public transport can also ease a lot of congestion and pressure on available parking space.”

An officer of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) told TOI, “The only option with us is to reduce the number of vehicles in the area. We will also keep removing encroachments on Ring Road.”

Surat Textile Marketing Transport Labour Union general secretary Shaan Khan told TOI, “Only a few markets have parking facilities, but they charge hefty parking fees. A tempo delivering grey fabric for a rent of Rs500 ends up paying Rs250 parking charge during visit to four markets in a day. We requested city police commissioner to notify textile markets as free parking zone, but he said free parking will be available only in shopping malls and multiplexes.”