Urban News

Hindustan Times 22.02.2010

The ice-cream pushcarts have been moved from there and, from Monday, the car parking lot will also vanish from the stretch.

Delhi Police will no longer allow cars to be parked between Vijay Chowk and India Gate.

But even as the police seem to be on an overdrive to clear the place, New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) — the civic agency responsible for making parking arrangements in the area — is clueless about the development.

“We have not received any communication so far from Delhi Police,” said Anand Tiwari, spokesperson NDMC.

The civic agency will have to spruce up the area for parking and decide the charges and allot attendants.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg said the police are yet to talk to the NDMC.

“We are going to talk to the land owning agencies and see that the proper parking arrangements are in place. Meanwhile, we will start an education drive to tell people who park their vehicles at Rajpath about the new parking facility near the water channel,” said Garg. “The traffic police personnel will guide people to the new spot and once all the facilities are in place, we will start penalising people.”

He said they were working on a few key points at the new space to be used for parking, including proper lighting, placement of parking attendants and security of the area.

What to expect?

The traffic police will not allow any sort of vehicular parking on the stretch between Vijay Chowk and Rajpath. Some No Parking signs have been placed and the rest will be put up by Monday. Police claimed that this was being done to maintain the “sanctity” of the place.

“We are going to enforce no parking on this stretch from Monday. Traffic police personnel would be placed on the stretch,” said Satyendra Garg, joint commissioner of police (Traffic).

The alternative

Senior traffic police officers said an alternative parking spot has been opened near the water channel at Rajpath.

Till now, the area was only used on Republic Day for parking. “The area would be opened for parking. Some work like providing adequate lighting is to be done but there should be no problem during the day,” said Garg.