THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Illegal parking continues to be a problem in the city despite efforts taken by the city corporation and traffic police to tackle it. The State Human Rights Commission has now stepped into address the issue after a complaint was filed against the haphazard parking on the University road in Palayam recently.
With shopping centres, restaurants, a church and University College on the same stretch, a parking facility is required. Many have taken to parking their vehicles on the road. This has resulted in occasional bottlenecks and pose difficulties to pedestrians.
“In Palayam, we used to have a parking facility on the Saphalyam complex premises. However, the construction for the corporation’s multilevel parking facility has begun has hindered car-parking on the complex premises. In fact, this Onam saw lesser customers in the region due to parking hassles,” said Aisha Baker, ward councillor.
In the report given to the Commission, an official with the Traffic Enforcement Unit, Thiruvananthapuram city, said: Traffic wardens are in-charge of collecting the parking fee. There are security officers-in-charge of managing traffic and they are given strict instructions to ensure that vehicles are not parked obstructing pedestrians or entry to shops.”
The absence of a long-term solution draws attention to a bigger issue that needed to be addressed. Several shops function without sufficient parking space in the city. To counter this, the city corporation had come up with a bylaw in which additional parking spaces can function by paying tax to the civic body. However, the proposal is still caught in red tape.
While the city corporation points to the upcoming multilevel parking system in three different spots as a solution to the parking issue, there is a certain lack of traffic discipline that goes unaddressed.