Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Jan 3: In absence of adequate parking slots in the city centre Lal Chowk, businessmen as well as the locals have been caught in a tight spot after the Traffic Police tightened its noose against what it called as the ‘menace’ of road-side parking.
The move of the Traffic Department has come following the directions from the High Court asking the department to take effective measures to put a check on frequent traffic jams caused due to road-side parking in the city.
While the move is being hailed for bringing a bit of change on the roads, the owners of the business establishments on the other side rue authorities for doing less to ease up their woes that have been caused due to the non-availability of parking spaces in the city centre.
Interestingly, the Traffic Department-as a part of its drive against the road-side parking-de-notified all the parking slots that were established over the years by the Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) and the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), while it did not provide any alternative to the people who throng the city centre.
Bashir Ahmad Kongposh, General Secretary Kashmir Traders and Manufactures Association, also said that the business establishments were suffering and the administration went ahead with the action without keeping in consideration the availability of parking slots.
“It has to be seen who gave the permission to the shopping complexes that have come up without they having proper parking spaces; the decision must be re-looked; at least the customers should be given proper spaces along MA Road, Residency Road, Hari Singh High Street as well as Lal Chowk,” he said.
The traders in the city centre have, in protest, put up posters demanding parking spaces for the customers who visit the shops and other establishments in Srinagar.
“We have been caught in a tight spot as the customers who visit us do not have any proper space to park their vehicles, with the result our business is taking a hit,” said Javaid Ahmad, a shopkeeper in the city.
The Traffic Department justified the move by saying that it will decrease traffic congestion on the city roads as the number of vehicles over the years has gone up exponentially, while it has done less providing proper and adequate spaces parking to people.
Another shopkeeper Bilal Ahmad Bhat told this reporter that the move might have brought about a sea of change with regard to the traffic congestion in the city but for them things are quite different.
“…things might have changed with regard to what the Traffic Department was intending to, but they have not bothered to open up more parking slot for us and as well as for the customers-what has become the order of the day is chaos,” he said.
The officials in the Traffic Department said that there was already a space crunch in the city in terms of having more parking spaces and the department was trying to do whatever it can.
The Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar, while weighing the gravity of the issue, also directed January 1 for the opening up of the ground floor of the parking space that is coming up at Partap Park and which is still under-construction.
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