Chandigarh: Vehicles parked on pavements, roadsides inconvenience residents

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 10

Vehicles parked on pavements, roadsides and parks outside houses are causing congestion on roads and inconvenience to residents.

For want of space in some areas, people park vehicles at non-designated places. At some places, even if there is parking space inside the houses, people park vehicles outside. Residents face inconvenience as sometimes vehicles are parked in front of the gates of their houses and they are unable to drive out their cars. At times, fights break out among residents in such cases.

Vehicles are parked even on pavements in residential as well as commercial areas, leaving little space for pedestrians. Inner roads of sectors are narrow and at some places, cars are parked on both sides of the road.

Hitesh Puri, chairman, Chandigarh Residents’ Association Welfare Federation (CRAWFED), said, “Residents are fed up with this. Every other day, we get a call from some or the other sector about fights due to parking issues outside houses. The problem is more in southern sectors.” He added that the need of the hour was community parking facility and stilt parking in new houses.

However, the UT Administration seems to be moving at a snail’s pace to resolve the issue. After a long delay, the Administration had earlier notified the parking policy with the aim to decongest the city. It has been proposed to impose congestion charges, link availability of parking space with vehicle’s registration and open community parking facilities in different areas.

Chandigarh has the highest density of vehicles in India.