BHUBANESWAR : To overcome issues of illegal parking of vehicles that pose a major challenge in traffic management of the city, the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to hire 10 towing vehicles to carry out enforcement against the vehicles parked at undesignated places in market and other public areas.
BMC officials said process has been initiated to rope in a private player to provide the towing service at public places. Five crane-mounted mini towing vehicles and as many crane-mounted towing trucks have been planned to be engaged through a private service provider to carry out enforcement against unauthorised parking at random places. Besides, CCTV cameras along with mic announcement system will be provided in the vehicles used for towing.
Sources said the focus will be more on market areas of Unit-I, Janpath as well as Patia road that witness severe traffic jam during evenings everyday, especially due to random and unauthorised parking. A month back traders and vendors of Unit-I market had also staged demonstration over various issues including illegal parking on the road which obstruct public movement to the capital’s largest market.
Besides, the multi-level car parking units of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL) at Saheed Nagar and Raj Mahal square are also struggling to get full occupancy reportedly due to lack of interest of commuters in parking their vehicles at the facilities. While BSCL has taken measures for towing of illegally parked vehicles at the places, officials admitted that this isn’t sufficient as other parking places are also facing a similar problem.
Municipal commissioner Vijay Amruta Kulange said though BMC has over 80 parking lots in different places, random and illegal parking continues at many places on a daily basis. “We have also received a lot of complaints in this regard, especially on social media platforms. Accordingly, decision has been taken to intensify the enforcement against illegal parking and ensure free passage for pedestrians, cyclists, public transport and motorists,” he said.