Parking Chakkar 2: Commercial Street, Cavalry Road

This is the daily scene on Commercial Street during business hours.

PARKING CHAKKAR-2
Bay-watch: squeeze into space jam
COMMERCIAL STREET, KAMARAJ ROAD
Times of India

Bangalore: Dasara, Deepavali and Ramzan, all in the span of a month, have made parking that much more tedious in the shopping district — Commercial Street and surroundings, Kamaraj Road, St John’s Road, Dispensary Road, Infantry Road, OPH Road, Ibrahim Saheb Street.

Finding a vacant parking slot on these roads on normal days is itself taxing. With festive shopping a must-must and space at a premium, the police are finding it difficult to regulate the stopping and moving of vehicles.
The roads remain narrow, and parking slots are limited, but the density of traffic has risen sharply here. These lanes just cannot take it. Shops and buildings have come up without providing ample space for parking. In fact, not a single shop on Commercial Street takes care of this need.

1 What ails the area?
Commercial Street is a narrow road with parking (parallel) of vehicles allowed on one side.
Thousands of shops have come up on the street and its bylanes.
Area attracts several thousand customers, but many roads are no-parking zones as they cannot take high volumes of traffic. Four-wheelers allowed to park only on certain roads, two-wheeler parking on narrow bylanes. 2 Who is responsible for the mess? Shopkeepers, police, civic authorities and public. Shopkeepers have encroached on pavements on Commercial Street, forcing pedestrians on to the road.
Police have no control on enforcement of rules on this road, where the biggest culprits are VVIPs and government cars.

3 What police say DCP, Traffic (East) M.A. Saleem:
Ban parking of vehicles on Commercial Street, like five years ago. But first we need to create sufficient parking space for traders and customers.
On Kamaraj Road, between Cubbon Road junction and intersection with Dickenson Road, both sides of the road are used for parking. This huge space belongs to the BCC. Underground and elevated parking lots here can accommodate more than 1,000 cars.
Shivajinagar bus stand parking lot is close to Commercial Street, but not well-utilised. Traders can park here and also organise valet parking for customers. Traders’ association should arrange free shuttle service from here to Commercial Street.

4 What traders have to say Manohar Chatlani, vice-president, Bangalore Commercial Association: Proposal submitted to BCC to introduce automated pay-n-park system which allows maximum of one hour parking on Commercial Street. With 70 car slots available, around 1,400 cars can be parked during business hours. This will force shopkeepers to park away from Commercial Street.
Allow automated pay-n-parking of cars on Dispensary Road, which has been made one-way. It can take care of 30 cars.


YOUR VOICE/M.G. ROAD

Following are some suggestions from readers on providing parking space.

Make space on Parade Grounds: Parking space should be provided on Parade Grounds to decongest M.G. Road and surrounding areas. — Halmut Conz, Bangalore.
Allow only shoppers: Only shoppers should be allowed to enter Brigade Road. Allowing parking on both sides of the road will help. — Ajit Kumar, J.B. Nagar.
Use basements to park vehicles: The basements of buildings on M.G. Road must be cleared for parking of vehicles. — Radhakrishna, Bangalore.

EXPERT OPINION

Suhail Yusuff, secretary, Brigade’s Shops and Establishments.
Suhail Yusuff has played an instrumental role in decongesting traffic on Brigade Road. He says:

•Remove encroachments from pavement — it can create 1-metre space on both sides for pedestrians.
•Go for angular parking (45 degrees) instead of parallel parking: this will make way for 135 cars instead of 70 cars parked at present.
•Introduce automated pay parking: it will dissuade shopkeepers of Ibrahim Saheb Street and Kamaraj Road from parking on Commercial Street from morning to night. Automated system with higher parking fee and limited hours of parking filters only serious shoppers.