BENGALURU: What started as a measure to clear the road that runs in front of the Magistrate Court — construction of multilevel parking — is creating a traffic jam behind the court.
The road behind the court, which connects Hudson Circle to the State Central Library, is critical because it sees two to three ambulances a day heading to the Mallya Hospital and Bangalore Kidney Stone Hospital.
To absorb the spillover from the front, the traffic department has turned this road into a two-way and allotted parking space along it. Cars are to be parked on the left of the road and two-wheelers in a space that runs into the park, to the right.
But errant two-wheeler owners park alongside cars and take up the left half of the road, causing the traffic holdup. According to the traffic constable who minds this stretch, the biggest culprits are advocates and the constables are wary of any confrontation with them.
Suresh (name changed), a policeman who minds this stretch, says, “I have been asked to ensure no one parks on the pavement to the left, but no one listens.” He has not fined anyone for this violation.
“When we ask them to park properly, a few are rude to us and ask us to mind our own business,” he says. According to Suresh, they had also tried to assault a police constable when he insisted.
Hari Prasad, a harried commuter, says, “They park two-wheelers in three lines, one behind the other. It’s difficult to take our cars out.”
M Ramesha, another constable, says that staff and visitors to the court have even stopped using the front entrance. “The wall behind the court has been broken and they walk in through that,” he says. “It has been going on since the beginning of the construction of the parking lot, more than a month ago.”
Deputy Commissioner of Police, (Traffic East) C K Baba says that he was unaware of the jam commuters and constables are in. “I will crosscheck and solve it as soon as possible,” he says and clarifies that “parking is allowed on one side, and only for cars, but two-wheelers must be parked inside the park.”
Curiously, there seems to be a group that is making money from the two-wheeler parking zone without the knowledge of the authorities.
“There are three people in the park who charge illegally for parking in the park,” says constable Suresh. “When a man questioned them, they started arguing and the lawyers supported the three.”
The parking lot, which falls inside the park, is under the administration of the Horticulture Department. But Deputy Director of Horticulture Mahantesh Murgod says that they’ve not appointed anyone to collect money at the two-wheeler parking. “We had heard of it though,” he says.
Officials at the horticulture and traffic departments promise that once the persons involved are caught, a case will be registered against them.