Parking is a battle

Parking is a battle
The 100-feet Road in Indiranagar is the most congested street in the city. Amit S. Upadhye and Chandrashe- kar G. find out where our civic agencies went wrong
Bengaluru


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The upmarket 100-feet Road in Indiranagar, the fashion and food street of East Bengaluru, is starved of parking space.

The fashion conscious who visit the stores offering the latest in men’s and women’s wear find they have very little choice when it comes to parking their vehicles in their vicinity.

None of the establishments here have adequate parking space.

The problem is not confined to the stores. Even the schools and the clubs here have inadequate parking lots. “No one but the civic agency has to be blamed for the parking mess on Indiranagar 100-feet Road and the busy Chinmaya Mission Hospital Road,” say residents who live in the area.

The police squarely blames the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike for having allowed commercial establishments to flourish here without insisting that they make adequate provision for parking of vehicles.

Former additional commissioner (traffic) IGP M.N. Reddy is said to have written to the Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike commissioner not to permit new establishments which did not have adequate parking space.

But, he reportedly did not receive a reply.

While the 100-feet Road in Indiranagar has one of the widest footpaths for pedestrians, police officers here point out that this has turned into a blessing in disguise for many shop owners who ask their customers to park their motorcycles on the pavement.

Police officers say that although vehicles parked on footpath are regularly towed away, people continue to use the pavements to park their motorcycles and scooters.

The Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike has now decided to hold a meeting to chalk out a strategy to regulate parking on the 100-feet Road.

“We are aware of the fact that several old commercial buildings have violated building bye-laws. Several buildings lack provision for basement parking, which is forcing customers to park their vehicles on footpaths and the roads. Shortly, a meeting will be held with the Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike commissioner to chalk out a strategy to solve the parking problem here. If necessary, we will slap notices on owners of buildings which have violated bye-laws,” BBMP special commissioner (Project) Mr K.R. Srinivas, told this newspaper.

The police, fed up with having to deal with the parking problem and the violations, are also looking forward to the Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike solving the problem once and for all.

what next? Use Cross Roads City-based traffic experts ask offi cials to make best use of crossroads on CMH Road and 100-feet Road in Indiranagar to decongest as well as provide adequate park ing space.

This could be the only short term solution.

100 ft road important At one end, the road connects to CMH Road (a busy commercial road) and to Old Madras Road (which witnesses tremendous traffic flow). On the other end, an ambitious, but fairly ugly flyover connects it to the Airport Road, Domlur Road and Inner Ring Road.

Dedicated lane for parking Since the footpath space on the 100-feet Road is wide enough, a small dedicated lane for parking can be created. It will not eat into the road and could even be cut into the poorly laid pavements which serve little purpose.

Build more multi level parking With the Metro works due on the busy CMH Road, the traffic experts in the city feel that the authorities must look for government buildings and vacant sites around Indiranagar to accommodate vehicles in a multi level parking system.