Kasauli Mess: 1,000 vehicles arrive daily, parking space only for 300

Ambika Sharma

Solan, June 19

With a large number of hotels lacking adequate parking facility, tourist vehicles are often found parked along the roads in the Kasauli Planning area that includes Kasauli town and its precincts.

This adds to the traffic woes of commuters on the narrow single-lane roads during the peak tourist season, when vehicles are at times found parked on both sides of the road. The Dharampur-Sanawar road and the Dharampur-Mangoti Mor-Garkhal road are a couple of examples where traffic chaos is often created due to roadside parking.

Admn to explore possibilities

Residents have demanded the construction of parking facilities, owing to the increased number of tourist vehicles entering the area. We will inspect the Dharampur-Kasauli road tomorrow to explore the possibility of creating parking lots, especially in areas that are major traffic bottlenecks. Gaurav Mahajan, Kasauli SDM

Despite an exponential increase in tourist influx in the last two decades, the civic amenities have failed to keep pace with the requirements in the area. The successive state governments have failed to prioritise construction of parking facilities in the area.

There are about 150 tourism units in the area, besides a number of homestays and breakfast units. There are as many as 80 hotels and resorts that are either under construction or already operating along an 8-km stretch of the Dharampur-Garkhal road alone.

Around 1,000 vehicles enter Kasauli town during the peak season, but there is space for parking only 300 vehicles in the Rs 19.5 crore parking facility that was created in July 2021. The remaining vehicles, including local taxis, are parked along roads though there are a few earmarked slots.

With the National Green Tribunal (NGT) having restricted the height of buildings to two storeys plus an attic floor in October 2018, to protect the fragile ecology of the area, several tourism projects lack parking facility. Though they are supposed to create parking on additional land, several hoteliers have chosen roads instead to save additional expenditure.

“The lack of parking in Kasauli is a major constrain for tourists who have to struggle to park their vehicles at available spots. Also, it leaves little space to walk on the Mall during the weekends due to haphazard parking along the road,” rued Ranvir, a tourist from Chandigarh.

With little government land available in Kasauli town to expand the civic amenities, construction of adequate parking is a herculean task.