No Parking: Narrow roads, 3L vehicles compound woes
Police to identify dedicated parking lots, will slap major fine for parking violations
RANCHI: With the number of cars and bikes increasing sharply in Ranchi, the shortage of parking spaces has become a perennial problem for the city residents.
At present, at least three lakh vehicles —including four-wheelers, three-wheelers and twowheelers —are plying on the city roads.
Traffic superintendent of police (SP) Sanjay Kumar Singh said, “A major issue is the narrow width of roads.”
The traffic SP added that dedicated parking spaces need to be identified across the city with proper signboards. “The traffic police would also charge strict fines for wrongful parking. The fines would keep increasing with every violation and the license would be seized for wrongful parking for the third time in a row,” he said.
Industrial town Jamshedpur also lacks parking lots for heavy and light vehicles. The development in infrastructure there often fails to keep up with the growth of automobiles.
Parking is a big problem for Greater Jamshedpur industrial region, which includes Adityapur industrila area that have around 10 lakh population. Vehicle registration has been increasing by more than 3,000 per year in the town. Annual vehicle registration is around 40,000 in the town, of which 80% are twowheelers and 20% four-wheelers.
“Marketplaces such as Jugsalai, Dimna, Mango, Telco and Golmuri lack spaces for light vehicles. People stop their two and four-wheelers at roadside or in front of shops to buy goods. Vehicles parked at these areas create chaos,” said Manu Mahato, a resident of Telco.
Reputed educational institutes such as Loyola School, Beldih Church School, Rajendra Vidyalaya, DBMS School, Motilal Nehru Public School lack parking spaces and create trouble for daily commuters during peak hours.
Bistupur market has a parking lot with the capacity to accommodate 200 cars while a new parking space was inaugurated in Sakchi two months ago. However, people avoid parking their vehicles at the site. Therefore, a sizeable portion of the main road is found occupied by parked vehicles.
Deputy superintendent of poilce (traffic) in Jamshedpur, Vivekanand Thakur, said, “The district administration, in association with traffic police, has located several sites for parking vehicles. This procedure would take time to provide complete relief. People should apply civic sense while parking vehicles and avoid parking at roadside.”
“The district administration has been conducting eviction drives at roadsides in Sakchi, Bistupur, Baridih, Golmuri and other localities for several months. The road-widening project by Jamshedpur Utility Services Company (JUSCO) has brought down traffic problems, but a large number of new parking spaces are required to unclog traffic snarls in the town,” the DSP said.