Lack of public parking a bane of McLeodganj

Lalit Mohan

Dharamsala, June 23

Lack of public parking places is bane of McLeodganj, a popular tourist spot in Kangra. Despite that Dharamsala was selected under the Smart City project and about Rs 650 crore have been spent in the city the problem of parking in McLeodganj persists. During peak tourist season, traffic mess is created in McLeodganj due to haphazard parking of vehicles on roadsides.

Hotels also to blame

• The MC had allotted work under the Smart City project for construction of multi-level parking near the Dalai Lama temple
• However, since the contractor was not carrying out construction in a time-bound manner his contract has been cancelled
• The parking problem in McLeodganj has become more acute as many hotels have converted their parking areas into commercial complexes, forcing customers to park vehicles on the roadside

At present, McLeodganj has one public parking owned and built by the Dharamsala Municipal Corporation and one private parking area at the Himachal Pradesh Road Transport Corporation (HPRTC) bus stand. Public parking can accommodate just about 300 vehicles. This proves grossly inadequate in peak tourist season when about 2000 vehicles enter McLeodganj on a daily basis. This leads to traffic jams that can extend to hours. Because of inadequate parking facility, most of vehicles that enter McLeodganj are parked on the roadsides adding to the traffic problem.

The Dharamsala civic body had allotted work under the Smart City project for construction of multi-level parking near the Dalai Lama temple. However, sources here said that since the contractor was not carrying out construction work in a time-bound manner his contract was cancelled. Fresh tenders will be allotted for construction of parking lot that can have parking facility for another 200 vehicles in McLeodganj, the sources said.

Commissioner of the Dharamsala MC and MD of Dharamsala Smart City project Anurag Chander Sharma, when contacted, admitted that the tender for construction of a multi-level parking near the Dalai Lama temple has been cancelled and new tender would be allotted soon. He said that at present the multi-level parking near the Dalai Lama temple was the only public parking project planned in McLeodganj.

The parking problem has become more acute as many hotels have converted their parking areas into commercial complexes. Due to this, the customers of these hotels are forced to park vehicles on roadsides. As per the rules of Town and Country Planning and Dharamsala MC no map of commercial buildings, including hotels and restaurants, can be passed till the owners create adequate parking area. However, many hoteliers later convert their parking areas into shops and are left without any parking area.

Commissioner of the Dharamsala MC, when asked, said that the local body has issued notices to many people who were using their parking areas for commercial purpose. Action was being taken against the offenders as per the law, he said. However, the action of Dharamsala MC remains limited to just issuing notices to the offenders.

Sanjeev Gandhi, general secretary of Hotel and Restaurant Association of Smart City Dharamsala, said that the government should find a permanent solution to the traffic problem at McLeodganj. The consistent traffic jams during peak tourist season pose problems to visitors and also bring a bad name to the area.