Stop parking vehicles on roads

Stop parking vehicles on roads


Parked vehicles on Commercial Street have robbed much of the road space hampering traffic
Express New Service
First Published : 08 Nov 2008 08:26:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 08 Nov 2008 10:31:47 AM IST

BANGALORE: Unscientific parking of vehicles on roads is eating into the already shrinking space of our roads, and vehicle-owners haven’t spared the footpaths either.

It is estimated that more than one-third of the capacity of the roads in the city is depleted due to indiscriminate parking. Business areas such as Brigade Road and Commercial Street, and residential areas such as Koramangala and Indiranagar are the worst-affected, say commuters.

“Add to it the inconvenience on roads where the metro rail work is in progress and we have traffic moving at a snail’s pace. Most roads are left with width that allows one or two vehicles to pass, thanks to the parked vehicles. On MG Road, for instance, traffic jams have always been common during peak hours. But now it has become worse,” says a commuter.

While parking on the roads causes inconvenience to riders, parking on footpaths is a bane for pedestrians and shopkeepers. Imran, a shopkeeper on Commercial Street, says: “Parking in front of shops has led to a lot of problems. On the other hand, a parking lot away from the shops can hit business as people may not visit shops far from the parking lot.”

“Nearly 32 lakh vehicles ply on the city roads every day and parking is a serious problem,” says Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic and Security) Praveen Sood. He is of the opinion that the problem can be solved only by creating more parking lots. “Even if we tow away vehicles parked in wrong places, there is no alternative place to park,” he adds.

Experts blame lack of enforcement of building bye-laws as the main cause for parking problems. The National Building Code (NBC 2005) and the BDA norms lay down specific rules with respect to parking areas in buildings.

“Any building should have an area measuring more than 50 square metres for a parking lot. In public buildings, 10 per cent of the area should be reserved for parking. These norms are supposed to be enforced during approval of building plans. But, evidently that is not happening.

The basement area in many buildings house shopping complexes, and in residential areas, a portion of many houses are rented out as offices, leaving no space for parking,” says Prof M N Sreehari, advisor to the state government in traffic management and expert committee member in ABIDe.

Enforcement of parking rules and penalising violators will yield good results, says DCP (East) B K Singh. This year, till the end of October alone, nearly 80,000 cases of parking violations were registered in the city, which generated revenue of Rs 1.8 crore, in the form of fines. “Recently, we issued a notification giving information on areas where parking is allowed and have started a drive to check parking violations,” Singh says.

Designating particular roads for parking can also reduce the problem, says Prof Sreehari. “Parking should be banned in areas such as Brigade Road, Jayanagar 4th block shopping complex and Commercial Street. But the government is not ready to do this as revenue from parking fees will stop coming,” he says.

Joint Director of Town Planning Narasimhamurthy, says that multi-level parking would soon be introduced on JC Road and KG Road, to overcome the problem. “Violation of parking rules is more common in low rise buildings and commercial areas. There is a task force headed by the Director General of Police to nab the violators,” he says.

However, considering the big mess that traffic management in the city is in, more needs to be done to solve parking problems.