Hyderabad: With proposals remaining on paper, parking problems continue to haunt commuters travelling along Metro corridors from LB Nagar to Ameerpet. Bumper to bumper traffic has been reported at several junctions including, LB Nagar, Dilsukhnagar, Moosarambagh, Malakpet, MBGS and Khairatabad due to badly parked vehicles.
Unlike the Miyapur-Nagole stretch, these stretches are very narrow, do not have parking spaces and motorists are forced to park their vehicles on the road.
The special committee constituted by the GHMC, HMDA, TSIIC and HMRL have started the blame game. HMRL officials claim that despite pleading the civic body to acquire land for parking, it has not done so. The two-wheeler parking which was supposed to be provided by the HMRL at every station has also not been completed, though the committee says that it will be ready in three months and 20 automated parking complexes will be ready in six months.
The government has constituted a five-member committee in which HMRL managing director is the convener, and GHMC commissioner, HMDA commissioner, and TSIIC MD and TSRTC MD are members.
The government has entrusted HMRL to manage the bidding process for development of multi-level parking and has asked GHMC, HMDA, TSRTC, TSIIC and other departments to provide suitable vacant lands at Metro, MMTS, railway and bus stations in the city. However, in two years the committee has managed to identify only 20 sites of the 45 proposed.
There are 16 stations on the 16-km stretch between Ameerpet and LB Nagar. Only LB Nagar has two wheeler parking.
Sharing his experience, Bhargav Apuri, who commutes to work from Nandanavanam near LB Nagar junction said that with SRDP construction going on at the junction, at least half an hour is wasted due to bumper to bumper traffic caused by zigzag parking. Mr Apuri said that earlier he used to take the Metro train at Nagole station which would take 30 minutes from his home. “Even though the distance has been reduced from Nagole to LB Nagar, the time taken to reach the Metro station remains the same due to severe traffic snarls and lack of parking facilities.
Echoing his concern, Durgesh Yadav, a Metro commuter at Khairatabad station said that he is forced to park his vehicle on the hardly visible footpath. Apart from traffic police towing away parked vehicles, pedestrians are inconvenienced. He demanded that the authorities construct parking complexes to end these commuter problems. With daily surge in fuel prices, he cannot afford to get challans from the traffic police, which tuned as burden to metro commuters travelling on the LB Nagar- Ameerpet stretch.
Asked to comment on this, a senior HMRL official, on condition of anonymit said that the two-wheeler parking issues at Metro stations will be completed in three months. When asked about the multi-level parking complexes, he said that during phase I, HMR will construct automated parking complexes at 20 locations. These parking complexes will be in public private partnership (PPP) mode. He said multi level parking will have concession period of 50 years and the bidder will be allowed to construct commercial space (floor area) equivalent to parking space created in accordance with the parking policy and building rules.
He said that the chief secretary Dr S.K. Joshi and MA&UD principal secretary Arvind Kumar were very keen on the project. He said that the parking complexes will be on par with the multi-model transit system in Singapore. "The construction of world class parking complexes will be completed in six months and second phase will be taken up immediately," he concluded.
