Indian Express 27.10.2010
To beat space crunch, municipal body thinks out of the box
Ajay Khape Tags : Pune Municipal Corporation, PMC Posted: Wed Oct 27 2010, 06:52 hrs
Pune: With automobiles flooding city roads, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is struggling to provide adequate parking space for vehicles. Of the seven plots reserved for off-street parking, the PMC has acquired only four with work under way in only two of the plots.To meet the parking demand, the municipal corporation is mulling mechanised parking system, already in place on JM Road, at Budhwar Peth, Hamalwada. They system involves lifting vehicles to park them on different floors of a steel tower.
Work on multi-storey parking facility is under way at the Pune railway station and on Laxmi Road. The civic administration had proposed increasing fees for onstreet parking facility, however, the plan received a set back after elected representatives made two-wheeler parking free of cost.
As part of a comprehensive mobility plan, the PMC conducted a study on parking needs at diffrent hours of the day. The plan suggested use of space-saving techniques like Auto-Parking. A ‘no parking’ zone was recommended in areas where the PMC is coming up with buildings for parking.
On parking needs during the day, the study revealed that demand exists uniformly throughout the day and goes up slightly from 11 am to 11.30 am.
The demand for parking begins at around 8 am. FC Road recorded the highest number of parked vehicles, 3845, while Bajirao Road saw the least. Two-wheelers accounted for 63 per cent of the total parked vehicles. More than 70 per cent of the vehicles are parked for less than one hour in commercial areas. Vehicles parked for over 3 hours are rampant in Swargate, FC Road, PMC and Hamalwada. Cars make up most of the parked vehicles at Hamalwada, Mandai, PMC and Pune Station.
PMC saw 1,567 parked vehicles in 12 hours with two-wheelers accounting for 65 per cent of all vehicles. Cars and autos made up 25 per cent and 3 per cent respectively while cycles account for 7 per cent of the parked vehicles.
“The parking infrastructure that was proposed at various locations in the city under JNNURM is unlikely to take off as the land reserved has been encroached upon,” said Vinay Deshpande, incharge of JNNURM cell of PMC.
PMC Traffic Planner Srinivas Bonala said, “There is no land available for parking buildings so mechanised parking is being explored.”
