The Times of India          19.11.2010

LUCKNOW: Even as enforcement of no parking rule on the roadsides in Hazratganj remains a challenge, authorities are making all efforts to ready the ground floor of multi-level parking by Saturday (November 20) — the deadline set by LDA for the task.

On Thursday, engineers working on the project claimed that but for putting concrete on a section of the stretch near the exit, the floor is almost complete. Sources, however, claimed that the floor would be ready for parking of vehicles only by Monday, because of the digging of road across the stretch, along the parking lot, to construct a trench where water pipelines are proposed to be laid. Not surprisingly, the entry and the exit points for the parking lot were swapped for the day. ''The arrangement is just for Thursday,'' the banner read. Engineers said that the arrangement is in place till the construction of trench is complete.

The under-construction floor said it all. Some of the pillars are yet to be tiled and a heap of construction material occupies a corner. An engineer at the site said that the problem was that of stacking up materials. Therefore, a corner of the ground floor was reserved for the purpose. This may reduce parking space on the floor. The total capacity of the ground floor is for around 200 vehicles. But, owing to dumping of construction material, the capacity may be reduced to around 150 vehicles. The two floors could provide space for around 350 vehicles, if managed properly. The upmarket locality has as many as 300 vehicles parked there at peak time, which is around 8.00pm.

LDA officials, however, admitted that even though the two floors are being made operational the bigger question is of making the vehicles park at the site. The basement, which got operational in Diwali itself, still remains half-occupied.

"Not many people are visiting Hazratganj because of the chaos," said a trader. "The number is likely to grow only after December when most of the work gets completed," an LDA official said. Project in charge, executive engineer Yogesh Pathak expressed concern at the low turnout of vehicles at the parking lot. "Only about 60 per cent of the space is filled up at most of the times," he said. This despite LDA cancelling the contracts of parking lots in Janpath Market as well.

SP (Traffic), Sureshwar Mishra admitted that plans have not fallen in place as yet. ''This is mainly because of the ongoing construction work. But then we ensure announcements are made for the commuters asking them to park their vehicles at the parking lot,'' he said. He said that once the construction work is complete and things are set in place, vehicles would automatically get parked at the multi-level parking lot.