Crores spent, but Shimla Smart City project fails to resolve Himachal capital’s perennial parking problem, residents forced to keep cars on roadside
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The Newz Radar
SHIMLA: Apart from being the capital town of Himachal Pradesh, Shimla is also a hot tourist destination visited by lakhs of tourists every year. As thousands of vehicles already exist in Shimla, those of tourists visiting the city from outside compound the traffic problem, leading to major traffic snarls at various points.
Shimla’s arterial Circular Road, built during the British era, is the main road used by almost everybody to reach various places in the city. This is the reason why significant steps were taken to widen the road wherever possible, a task on which crores were spent under the Smart City Project. But the widened portion of the road has now been serving as a parking spot for vehicles, with the government having failed miserably to build additional parking spaces in Shimla. As a result, the widened roadsides have now been converted into parking by people.
People are taking to roadside parking even at bottleneck points such as Tutikandi Crossing to the RTO, near Lakkar Bazaar and on the Sanjauli-Dhalli road. On most part of the road from Lakkar Bazar to Sanjauli, cars can be seen parked permanently on roadside. The road below the Indira Gandhi Medical College has also been completely converted into parking. Though patients coming to the hospital park their cars here as no parking facility is available anywhere around, some locals too park their cars permanently on this stretch.
Similarly, vehicles are permanently parked on the Sanjauli-Dhalli Bypass, which witnesses major traffic snarls during office rush hours in the morning and evening when traffic isn’t allowed for a certain period through the main Sanjauli Bazaar. There are several others similar points in the city which people have converted into permanent parking spaces.
No registration without parking facility
In view of the problem of vehicles parked on the roads in Shimla, only those vehicles are allowed to be registered in the city whose owners have their own parking or park their vehicles on rent somewhere. While buying a new vehicle, verification has to be done from the police station concerned as per rules, but people have circumvented this too. Once people get the parking receipt, they park their cars on the roads instead of parking spaces.
1 lakh vehicles, only few thousand parking spaces
More than one lakh vehicles are registered in Shimla. Apart from this, vehicles also come here from outside states and other parts of Himachal. On the contrary, there are only 12 major parking lots in the city in which only about 3,000 vehicles can be parked. Then parking has also been made in some areas by drawing yellow lines on roads. There is a total parking facility for about 4,500 vehicles while the rest have to be parked on roadside. The Newz Radar reached out to a few Shimla residents to know their views on the parking issue:
Why not make multi-level parkings
A resident, Baburam Verma, says that it is the compulsion of the people that they are parking vehicles on the roadside. “Due to the lack of ample parking, many people do not bring their vehicles from home. The government should build multi-level parkings at different places in the city,” he says.
Arrange proper parking on roadside
Advocate Tej Singh says that the government has widened the roads, but the parking arrangements along the roads have not been made. If we look at IGMC Hospital, there is not a single parking here. Similar is the situation in other parts of the city. He says that this problem can be solved only if the government makes arrangements for parking.
Little option but to park cars on roads
Retired officer Rajendra Dutt Sharma says that due to the hilly terrain, people’s houses are away from roads. At the same time, parking is far away from markets and hospitals, so people are forced to park their vehicles on the roads. “The administration should make proper arrangements for parking at such places.”
Why park on roads built with govt money
Aryan Thakur says that roads have been built with public money but people are parking their vehicles on these, which should not happen. “Police should take action against those parking on roadside.”
Widened roads failing to serve purpose
Nirmal Singh says that people are parking their cars on roads, which have been widened with government money. “People have parked at various places in the city, which is causing long traffic jams.”
