Haphazard parking creates traffic problem in Nakodar

Phagwara, January 18

The civic body has failed to create parking space to keep pace with the pressure on roads caused by the increasing number of vehicles, forcing people to park vehicles along the roads leading to traffic chaos.

Since there are no parking lots in the town, most visitors park their vehicles at Fawara Chowk near the Nakodar Nagar Council office, clogging three roads and leading to traffic snarls. Residents hold municipal authorities responsible for not providing adequate parking space, selling and leasing prime land at throwaway prices. They blame the civic authorities for gifting the land suitable for parking adjoining the Ambedkar Chowk to the Vishwakarma Trust in 2000.

The then Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had laid the foundation stone of Ramgarhia Hall on August 4, 2001, despite protests from residents against giving away the land for a song.

A businessman said the municipal council sold seven kanal of prime land on the Hospital Road to the Telecom Department in 1990.

A social worker alleged that the government land which could have been used to create parking space had been encroached upon. “Shops have been constructed on a six kanal plot opposite the Civil Hospital, forcing the residents to park their vehicles at Fawara Chowk,” he said.

Most residents are of the opinion that the Army land measuring 11 kanal and 11 marla, which has been encroached upon by Shivala Mandir authorities, should be used for parking vehicles. They said the Nakodar Nagar Council should pay market rent of the land to the Army.

The Council had passed a resolution in 2000 to construct shops on this piece of land and to use it as a parking area.