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Give us TenderSure roads, We know how to mess it up

Bengaluru is in desperate need of a good, holistic parking policy

Bengaluru: Where is our civic sense! Columns of vehicles parked on the pavements of well laid out St Mark’s Road, where TenderSure was completed recently, narrate a sad tale of poor management of urban spaces.

What this road, with its international quality amenities, lacks is parking bays. The other four roads under TenderSure too have not taken vehicle parking into design consideration. The road, which otherwise makes for an easy commute, gets chocked when schools in the area leave. Despite repeated pleas from the police and school administrations, parents come in cars and two-wheelers and park them on the stretch, affecting the movement of vehicles.

Pavement parking has become major concern in the CBD area as the police overlook a number of parking irregularities. During weekends the footpath in front of Catholic Club is packed with cars leaving no space for anyone to walk. The St Mark’s Road which has recently undergone a change for the good is also not spared.

But statistics on parking enforcement show that the city is paying more and more for wrong parking. At some stretches it’s the problem with signage, where a number of commuters park at non-designated areas unknowingly. In the year 2014, the traffic police issued 18 lakh challans for wrong parking on city roads. In the last six months about 10 lakh more offences of wrong parking have been committed in Bengaluru. The police believe that making people pay for parking on the road is the best solution to the problem.
“We are invoking Section 283 of IPC (causing obstruction) on those who park on the pavements in the city. To begin with we will implement this law on the roads which are covered under the TenderSure project. Under the section one can be even arrested for committing the offence. The police are booking cases for wrong parking regularly and even on St Mark’s Road,” said Mr M A Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic).

Stating that the CBD area has poor parking infrastructure, Mr Saleem said that the police had been demanding for many years, the reintroduction of pay-and-park through the Parking Policy. “The policy has been prepared by the traffic police and the Department of urban land transport. But the government has not yet implemented it. The Policy has many practical solutions for the current parking problems that the city is going through.”

Implement pay and park: Transport experts

Experts believe that the only solution to the bringing down of the haphazard parking in the city is the pay-and-park policy and an increase in the fine amount. In fact, the Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) had suggested a pay-and-park policy, dividing the city into three zones with the central business district as an A zone and each of these areas was to have different parking fees for on-street parking and off-street parking and stricter restrictions on parking time. Subsequently the BBMP gave its nod and called for tenders wherein only three bidders participated and apparently none of them qualified. Hence, the BBMP has again called for tenders for 56 stretches in the CBD area, but unfortunately this does not include any of the TenderSure roads.

Basavraj Kabade, BBMP executive engineer (traffic engineering cell) points out, “Once all the seven roads of TenderSure roads are completed, we will include them in the pay-and-park policy as well. Since work is going on in the majority of the roads, it is difficult to include these roads in the tender.”

However, R K Mishra, one of the strong supporters of TenderSure roads lashed out at the BBMP for the lack of monitoring of parking at TenderSure roads and said, “In TenderSure roads there is a dedicated area for parking and due to lack of monitoring, people park their vehicles there for the entire day. Pay-and-park policy should be introduced at the TenderSure roads. I understand they cannot introduce it in the roads where work is going on but they can definitely take it up at St Marks Road and Vittal Mallya Road were the roads are ready. Moreover, the BBMP does not have to spend a single penny, they just need to outsource it to some third party just like it is done at the airport.”

Agreeing to the fact that with the advent of TenderSure, parking woes have increased tremendously and people are seen parking in the middle of the road, on the pavements and so on, BBMP Commissioner Kumar Naik says, “The traffic department has pointed out that lack of signage has been a problem, so soon we will install all the necessary signs. Again we are going to have an interaction with the traffic department wherein we will discuss all the issues. Besides, we are exploring ideas like multi-level car parking facilities near TenderSure roads.” He adds, “Currently, the roads are designed in such a way that it provides some space for parking and people are allowed to park on that dedicated stretch. Parking on the pavement or reaching the middle of lane is not acceptable.”

On the other hand, members of Praja RAAG, an advocacy group have been demanding the improvement of other transport facilities like buses and commuter rail to bring down the menace of parking.

( Source : deccan chronicle )
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