Srinagar, Jan 18: The nerve of the Kashmir valley, Srinagar city remains jam packed with parked vehicles throughout the day, throwing traffic out of gear. In many cases, even ambulances are stuck in traffic jams in Srinagar.
The lack of parking lots in smart city is the main reason behind the traffic mess. Also some major multi-level retail outlets here in the city center Lal Chowk, also don’t have adequate parking lots, that forces commuters to park their vehicles on the roadside.
The city, as per motor vehicle department, has more than 3 lakh registered two-wheelers and four-wheelers but has parking space for only 2000 vehicles. In addition, thousands of vehicles are added each year.
Thousands of vehicles from many districts of Kashmir enter the city on a daily basis, but most of the city parts are lacking parking lots, which adds to people’s woes. Currently, there are only few parking lots in Srinagar, and they are unable to handle the huge rush of vehicles.
According to a senior traffic police officer, the parking capacity in Srinagar is only 2,000 vehicles, which is insufficient to cater the huge rush of vehicles. There is a need of additional parking lots to make city roads traffic free, he said.
He said, many areas in Srinagar city including Karan Nagar have been commercialized which needs additional parking for at least 2000 vehicles.
The officer stated that there should be parking slots at Goenkhan, Maharaj-Bazar, and many other city parts. “How is this possible for a person to park his vehicle at Lal Chowk and walk by foot to nearby markets where there is no parking space available?”
The traffic officials also said that many people prefer to park their vehicles on the roadside when parking spaces are available. “The department is either towing them or ticketing them for parking in the wrong direction. Srinagar is having parking issues, but under the smart city project, some parking arrangements are being made that will provide a sigh of relief to people,” he said.
When contacted Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) Vice Chairman, Harris Ahmad Handoo stated that they don’t have space available to build a parking slot. “We will hand over their existing parking lots to Smart City.”
Commissioner Srinagar Municipal Corporation, Athar Amir Khan told Rising Kashmir that the city is redesigning many roads to include parking lots.
“We is working on many parking spaces in various locations. Also, the roads are being redesigned and will have their own parking slots. It will take up to a year to make these parking slots available,” he said.
