Some discipline may return to parking lots

Some discipline may return to parking lots
The Hindu

BANGALORE, MARCH 31. The city's numerous and scattered public parking lots may not see much chaos when the pay-and-park system ceases to exist from Friday. The authorities have made it clear that certain roads will continue to have paid parking, as will be the parking lots specially created by the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike.

Many vehicle owners point out that before the paid parking system came into being four years ago, there was some discipline as far as parking vehicles was concerned, even on busy roads. Of course, there were impatient drivers who gifted others a dent or a scratch or a broken side mirror but it happens now too, they say.

For brothers Atul and Anil, who have a wholesale hosiery dealership, now it may be time to cut costs. Their salesmen had to shell out large amounts each day on parking fees and they used to reimburse it. Their vans delivering goods to retailers too had to pay for parking.

For most office-goers such as Ganganna, who works in Wilson Garden, parking was invariably inside the company compound and never an issue.

"On weekends, when I drove the family around to restaurants or cinemas, the cost of parking charges had to be calculated in the expenses of outings. Cinemas will, of course, continue to charge us,'' he says.

For some women drivers such as Nisha who works in an information technology firm in Koramangala and often drives to malls and to shops in places such as Indiranagar, there is worry about safety to themselves and their vehicles.

"Even now there are male drivers who try to crowd us out of the road and overtake, and at parking lots it is going to be a free-for-all where the men will grab all the space available,'' she fears.

About measures to tackle the problems that may arise once the pay-and-park system is withdrawn, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic-East), M. Abdullah Saleem, said: "We will watch the situation and then decide."

The police have opposed the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike's decision to withdraw the pay-and-park system from April 1 saying it may increase vehicle thefts and also lead to chaos on roads.