VISAKHAPATNAM: With the illegally parked vehicles reamining the major contributor to the traffic congestions on the city roads, the proposals for setting up multi-level parking lots have been gathering dust for years now.
With the increase in the number of vehicles year after year, traffic snarls owing to lack of parking spaces have been bothering the citizens and traffic police as well. Now, with Dasara festival on threshold, many people throng malls, business establishments and jewellery shops and park their vehicles on the roadside, inconveniencing the fellow road users. Particularly the Station Road, Dabagardens, MVP Double Road and Jagadamba junction area dotted with shopping malls and jewellery showrooms are facing similar problems.
“The parked cars and bikes narrow the roads even further. Seldom do we see police action. Half of the road is occupied,” said S Jayaram, a bank employee from Kirlampudi Layout. Traffic police records suggest that around 10.6 lakh vehicles were registered in the city last year and every year around a lakh more are added. Moreover, vehicles used by the flaoting populations take advantage of the poor surveillance. With lack of parking spaces, woes continue at various places. What worries the police is that the parking problem would worsen in the coming three to four years as the number of vehicles increase unceasingly.
“The number of vehicles has been increasing at a high rate. Every year, we see at least 90,000 vehicles added, especially four-wheelers. The situation on the roads passing through commercial zones are going for the worse,” said ADCP(Traffic) K Mahendra Patrudu.
The traffic police have suggested multi-level parking at six to eight places long ago, but the projects have remained on th epapers only. According to police, the Beach Road, Siripuram area near the Lions Club, Ramnagar, VUDA Central Park region and a few other places have been recommended for multi-level parking. The established parking zones in the city are also not in use fully.