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Parking problems set to worsen
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as improvement of several busy road corridors under the 42-km City Road Improvement Project is nearing completion, civic authorities, planners and the traffic police are yet to frame parking management strategies to reduce parking problems.
One such strategy worked out by the National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC) for the arterial roads in the city remains in the files. Neither could the City Corporation make much headway, even after years, with its plan to acquire land and convert them into parking lots.
Pay-and-park lots have come up on the central railway station premises, at the second entry of the station on Power House Road, Gandhi Park and Palayam and behind Saphalyam Complex. Barring these and the parking space provided by some shops, regulated parking does not exist on the stretch from Kesavadasapuram to Attakulangara, via RR Lamp and Overbridge. Even worse is the situation on the widened RR Lamp-Vellayambalam-Sasthamangalam and Vellayambalam-Peroorkada stretches.
Opposition
Already, a move to regulate parking on the improved Vellayambalam-Sasthamangalam stretch, which will be commissioned on Tuesday, has come in for opposition from local people and the traders. Thiruvananthapuram Road Development Company Ltd., the implementing agency of CRIP, has put up no-parking boards on the 1.4-km four-lane stretch.
The parking problems will aggravate on the RR Lamp-Attakulangara stretch once the road development works are completed. From RR Lamp to VJT Hall, the stretch is out of bounds for parking. The only space available is the side of VJT Hall. Medians on the stretch from GPO junction to Overbridge, via Ayurveda College junction, have compounded the problems of those who come to shops and business establishments in motor vehicles. Once the footpath is laid, parking along the roadside will come to an end.
Traffic planners anticipate parking problems on the Kowdiar-Pattom road, which is already turning into a business-and-shopping corridor similar to the Plamood-Kesavadasapuram stretch. Already, the developed carriageway near Kowdiar junction is being used for parking by those who come to restaurants and shops and other business establishments.
Parking policy
Efficient utilisation of existing capacity by providing well-designed on-street parking lots, optimal use of off-street space, improving pedestrian facilities and transportation alternatives, sharing parking space and public and private parking are the parking management strategies proposed by NATPAC.
Reducing parking demand through parking pricing, regulating time of parking and certain vehicles, car pooling and fine-tuning parking requirements are the other strategies.
A NATPAC official told The Hindu that the city urgently needed multi-level parking lots at East Fort, Statue, Palayam and Pattom. The present practice of parking for long hours on the roadside should be curbed by imposing a fee after an initial free period. The money so received should be used for developing and maintaining the parking area and road safety.
He said that in many buildings, the parking lots had been converted into office space and any space remaining was used to leave staff vehicles. The visitors find it difficult to park their cars and two-wheelers. The building rules needed to be re-examined as parking demand was on the rise with more people opting for personalised modes of transport. A time would come soon when flat owners would buy two parking lots each.
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