Indian Express 27.10.2010
Traders come in way of parking lots at Khadki cantonment
Ishfaq Naseem Tags : Khadki Cantonment Board, KCB Posted: Wed Oct 27 2010, 03:35 hrs
Pune: With the pay and park plan of the Pune Municipal Corporation falling flat in the wake of resistance from traders, the civic administration is struggling to deal with the dearth in parking lots in the Khadki cantonment area. According to officials, the Khadki Cantonment Board (KCB) had decided to regulate parking in the cantonment area by starting paid parking outside Khadki Bazaar, however, the proposal was called off due to the resistance from traders.“We don’t have even a single paid parking facility in the cantonment area as of now,” said cantonment executive engineer Arun Godbole. “People park their vehicles on the cantonment land and don’t pay anything,” said KCB chief revenue superintendent V R Panse.
Although the Pune Cantonment board (PCB) has some 40 designated parking spaces, the cantonment board is unable to increase parking space. “The vehicle population has increased but we are not able to increase the parking spaces beyond a limit as the people have demanded that parking be stopped at some places,” said elected-member PCB, Manzoor Nazir Sheikh. “People residing around the Shivaji Market have complained that due to the double parking they were facing difficulties in entering the market,” added Sheikh. “The cantonment board realises a revenue of nearly Rs 1.2 crore on an annual basis by giving out the contract for utilisation of its pay and parking facilities. We would have been able to earn more in case we identify more parking areas,” said Shiekh.
Officials of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) said that more parking lots have been identified under the in the development plan but the people at some places were resisting. Additional city engineer PMC, Srinvas Bonala, said, “We have identified more parking lots in the development plan and have acquired the land at some places. At many places we are in the process of resolving the issues of ownership with the people whose land is to be taken over.” He added that in order to avoid congestion on the roads, the PMC continues to levy parking charges on four-wheeled vehicles for road-side parking facilities. “ We have exempted the two-wheelers and three-wheelers from paying any charges for parking at the designated road side parking facilities which have been identified by the traffic police,” he said, adding that this has been done to regulate the increasing number of vehicles in the city.
