Shimla has 79,298 vehicles, space for 687: Minister

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, December 9

The capital is clogged with vehicles and the government has no immediate solution to the problem.

The fact came to the fore as the government replied to a query of BJP MLA from Shimla Suresh Bharadwaj, regarding the parking scene in the capital.

Minister for Town and Country Planning Sudhir Sharma said, “Shimla has a parking facility for just 687 vehicles. Besides, the facility has been expanded by drawing a yellow line along the road to accommodate 188 more vehicles.”

He said there were 79,298 vehicles in Shimla. The number of vehicles in the capital increased to double or three-fold during the peak tourist season. This implies that the city witnesses over 2.5 lakh vehicles during the peak tourist season.

Sudhir said the government had proposed to build 49 decentralised parking lots in the city that would handle additional 2,012 vehicles. Of these, just one case had been sent for forest clearance to the Government of India, he said.

Bharadwaj said the government should make use of land available with the Railways for parking lots. He proposed that the state government should allow residents to construct an extra floor in houses for parking and people should be allowed to develop parking places under the public-private partnership mode. The BJP MLA expressed concern over the delayed ropeway projects in the city that can decongest traffic.

As for the Jakhu ropeway project, the minister said it had been delayed due to environmental clearance. He said the new ropeway proposed by the present government from Tuti Kandi to Jodha Niwas was stipulated to be finished in three years.

While responding to a query from Sarkaghat MLA Inder Singh and Nadaun MLA Vijay Agnihotri, the minister said thousands of cases of demarcation of lands and division of ancestral properties were pending. Sudhir said a delay in division of properties was being caused due to litigation among families.