Bengaluru: The traffic police personnel have been told to look for vacant government lands, which can be used as parking lot for vehicles. Parking of vehicles on the city roads has become a menace, as it reduces carriage space and affects traffic flow.
The road side or kerb side parking has been rampant on the arterial roads, but now even residential areas are free from it.
As per a suggestion made earlier by the traffic police department, the government has asked the traffic police to send them list of vacant government spots which can be turned into parking lots.
A senior police officer in the traffic police department said, “These days we get complaints regarding traffic congestion in residential areas, which was not prevalent earlier. We checked and found that almost every house has a car and due to lack of parking space in the house, they were leaving it outside. This eats up into the road space and hampers vehicle movement. We had discussed the issue with various government officials and suggested them about using vacant spots.”
Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Harishekaran has issued circular to all the traffic police stations, asking them to identify vacant government lands in their jurisdiction and send them a list. “These lists will be collated and sent to the BBMP, who will discuss with various government officials and take further steps,” the officer added.
However, Akshay Rao, a traffic analyst working for a private company, was skeptical about the move. He called for a stop on registering private vehicles and cabs.
“It is a good idea to use vacant lands as parking lots, but what next after these spaces also get filled? There are around 80 lakh vehicles on the road and soon we will reach a crore. The government should start thinking about stop registering vehicles and work towards building an efficient public transport. It is high time the movement of cabs and private vehicles on roads is cut down, failing which, the city will be doomed,” Rao observed.
