Parking woes mount in Mussoorie with rising tourist footfall
MUSSOORIE: A spike in the number of tourists especially on weekends leading to parking space shortage has irked the tourists and residents alike, despite the construction of two new parking facilities in Mussoorie.
The basement public parking facility for 150 vehicles at the newly constructed town hall near Municipal Board premises in the Landour bazaar has not been made operational due to a lack of coordination between the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) and Municipal Board, rendering the facility of no use for either tourists or residents of the town.
“The basement parking facility at the newly constructed town hall by MDDA can cater to around 150 vehicles but the MDDA has not opened it for the public despite the completion of the town hall building this year,” Municipal Board president Anuj Gupta said. “We have written a letter to the authority to request them to open the parking for tourists to reduce the congestion on the roads but have received no response yet.”
MDDA executive engineer Manoj Joshi said,” We have received a request letter from the Municipal Board and have marked it for action to the senior officials in the department. A memorandum of understanding is also being prepared with Municipal Board and once the process is completed, the parking facility will be opened for tourists.”
The status of another PWD inspection house premises that was demolished to make way for the proposed parking facility for more than 33 vehicles last year is also unclear. “Following the demolition of the PWD inspection house, we had handed over the property to MDDA that was assigned the task of constructing the parking facility and we have no information of its current status at the moment,” said DC Nautiyal, PWD executive engineer, Mussoorie. The property was handed over MDDA but it was said that the talks were on to hand it over to another executing agency, said MDDA officials.
The new parking facility for around 230 vehicles, which was constructed and inaugurated by chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami last year at king Craig, has not been made operational yet inviting the ire of the residents and tourists alike.
Vikas Bhatia of Mussoorie said, “what is the use of spending croreson a parking facility when the tourists and residents cannot use the service.”
Nautiyal said, “We are just the constructing agency as the property belongs to the tourism department which can only decide under what mode it will operate the parking facility.”
However, the tourism department has also not appointed anyone to operate the parking at Kingcraig.
District tourism officer Jaspal Chauhan said, “The department has prepared the expression of interest for the management of the parking, and it will be issued once all the modalities are completed.”. The increase in the number of homestays and paying guest houses along with the hotels has also added to the pressure as most of the properties do not have their own parking resulting in clogging of the alleyways and by-lanes of the town with vehicles.
Shriram Shukla, a senior citizen from Mussoorie, said, “Most of the hotels do not have their own parking forcing the tourists to park the vehicles erratically on the roadsides making it difficult for pedestrians to walk on the roads even on the linking roads”. As per the tourism department data, there are more than 300 hotels and 100 homestays and paying guest houses registered with the department.
Bimal Singh, a tourist from
Noida, said, “When we reach Mussoorie, there is no one to guide us where to park our vehicles and the tariff at most of the parkings is exorbitantly high leaving no option for the tourists but to park their vehicles on the sides of the mall and camel’s back road.”
Legal experts are of the view that until the district administration does not take strict action, the residents will not get respite from the parking woes in Mussoorie. Kanchan Rangarh, n advocate in the high court, said, “On July 3, 2017, Uttarakhand high court in its Nainital specific order had directed the Nainital district administration to seal hotels, guesthouses and homestays which do not have provision of parking facilities for vehicles at least 50% of their accommodation capacity. If the solution is not found for Mussoorie, a similar situation could arise which will be detrimental for the image of the town.”
The hoteliers have been demanding modification in the MDDA bye-laws for the hotels that are interested in constructing their own parking space which will facilitate more parking space in the town.
Rajkumar Kanojia, treasurer of Mussoorie Hotel Association, said,” “Most of the hotels have space to construct parking faculties either in the basement or on the rooftop but find it difficult due to the existing MDDA byelaws that act as the hindrance in increasing the space for parking.” Sandeep Sahni, president of Uttarakhand hotel and the restaurant association, said,” It has become imperative to address the parking issue in Mussoorie and for that, a master plan for the town that will demarcate residential areas from commercial ones is very important.”