Of 47 designated parking lots, only 33 operational in city

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, February 14

The Traffic Adviser to the J&K Government had cleared 47 road parking spots in Srinagar city to help people visiting the city find parking spaces easily. However, as has been revealed, the Senior Superintendent of Police, Traffic, has approved the functioning of only 33 road parking spots.

Taking a serious note, the High Court has asked the authorities concerned, including the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), to explain why 14 designated parking spots have been left out.

Lack of proper parking facilities is proving to be a major problem confronting the motorists visiting the city. To ease out traffic congestion and accommodate the growing number of vehicles arriving daily in Srinagar city, the authorities, in September last year, had identified 2,000 spots and different streets in the summer capital that can be designated as paid parking spots.

However, the final decision in this regard was to be taken by the committee headed by the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir, under whose supervision a detailed survey for the identification of the parking zones/spots in the city was undertaken.

As the HC is already hearing a PIL about the streaming of traffic in the city, the court, in its subsequent orders dated November 29, 2017, had asked the SMC to file a report on the designated road parking stretches in Srinagar city.

“In response to paragraph 8 of the order, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation has stated in its status report, which was filed on January 3, that road parking stretches at two places in Karan Nagar and four in Lal Chowk are in place as per the details given in the report,” a division bench of Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice Sanjeev Kumar observed in its fresh orders made available today.

“It is also made clear that out of 47 spots, as were cleared by the Traffic Adviser, the SSP, Traffic, has approved the functioning of only 33,” the bench said about the status report filed by the SMC, Srinagar.

“Regarding the remaining 14 spots, the Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir has already issued instructions asking the authorities concerned that when the Traffic Adviser had cleared 47 spots, why were 14 left out?” the bench observed in its orders.

When confronted with these facts, the counsel appearing for the SMC submitted that he would submit the report by or before March 1, the next date of hearing.

Parking woes 

• Srinagar city is facing a shortage of designated parking lots, both in paid and unpaid categories
• The city has over 2.61 lakh vehicles 
• At present, it has a capacity to accommodate only 5,000 vehicles in the allotted parking spots