Park, don't pay; no worrying on MG Road

Park, don't pay; no worrying on MG Road

Closure of a thoroughfare stretch comes as a boon to motorists

Bosky Khanna and Senthalir S. Bangalore



For once, parking is not a nightmare on Mahatma Gandhi Road as nearly half of the thoroughfare stretch has been turned into an impromptu parking lot, thanks to the ongoing Namma Metro work.
The MG Road stretch from Trinity Circle to Brunton Road, which has been closed completely for Metro work, has now become a vast parking lot.
People have been parking their vehicles in the barricaded stretch of the road, below the Metro bridges under construction and between the pillars, for six days now.
But the flip side is that the Metro work has taken away the luxury of a few who could drive up to their offices and park their vehicles in official parking lots.
"Parking space on MG Road was the most difficult thing to get. But we are now forced to park our vehicles bang on the middle of the road. This is because the entry to our building is blocked,'' said Prakash Puttaparthi, an employee of HSBC bank.
A few companies have even assigned their security guards to manage the vehicles of their employees on the road. Kamal Sharma, a security guard of a private company who was manning a part of the road, said that his task was to take care of the vehicles of his company employees. He said he would make space for parking only to those who showed company identity cards.
Shoppers too are seen parking their vehicles free of cost. "We have to ensure that vehicles are not parked outside the barricaded areas as they will be towed away. It is also very difficult to find parking space on MG Road, but this provision has helped,'' said Narendra Kumar, a citizen.
Ulsoor traffic police inspector Kavitha MC said that though the provision to park on the road was made only for people coming to the companies in the area, anybody could park their vehicles. "We have not allowed parking, Metro has. Since there has been a lot of inconvenience to commercial establishments in the area because of Metro work, this arrangement was made," she added
"The parking space on the stretch between Brunton Road and Trinity Circle will be available only for two months. Parking of vehicles between pillars too is temporary as they are doing so because of blacktopping work going on in the area. All support is being provided to Metro to ensure that work is completed at the earliest,'' additional commissioner of police (traffic) Praveen Sood said.