Parking's back, sparks shoppers' energies

arking's back, sparks shoppers' energies

The Army had banned parking on its land near Commercial Street

Basavraaj Itnaal. Bangalore



The re-opening of the parking space on Kamaraj Road came as a relief to hundreds of shoppers who throng the Commercial Street especially on weekends.
Rishi Nandan, who went to Commercial Street with his wife during the weekend, said he was happy that the Army had allowed the parking on either side of Kamaraj Road. "Last week, I had read about the parking ban on Commercial Street. But when I came this week, parking was allowed and I didn't have to face any problem," he said.
Vice-President of Bangalore Commercial Association Ajay Motwani told Sunday DNA that the traders' body would depute nine attendants to look after the lot. "We will soon start work on having bougainvilla plants adjacent to the walls of barracks which again will be fenced. This will prevent drivers from urinating on the wall. Though there is a toilet on Dickenson road, most drivers don't come that far; so we will build a toilet in the area itself," he said. A parking attendants Veeraiah said more than 1,000 cars use the parking lot on Saturdays and Sundays. Many cars were seen waiting for long hours to find parking space.
Shashi Rekha who refused to be photographed, said: "There seems to be no sufficient parking space. I had been waiting for the last half an hour and the parking lot is full."
Motwani on the other hand felt that the scarcity of parking space could be solved only by creating additional parking lots. "Last year, we had proposed to have multi-level parking lot next to Ulsoor lake. But due to protest from the morning walkers we had to abandon the project," he said. Even getting clearance from the army was an uphill task, he said. "BBMP is expected to maintain the place but they never did that," he said.