3 years on, Bhopal Municipal Corporation way off from choosing location

BHOPAL: Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) is sill a long way from deciding right location for a multi-level parking in Mahrana Pratap Nagar. The search for proper location, which had begun some three ago, is still not over."We had proposed a four-storied multi-level parking opposite Arch Manor hotel, but a month ago we had to drop the plan," BMC commissioner Rajneesh Shrivastava said. "We dropped the idea due to legal complications and legal matter takes a lot of time to get resolved," he added."The corporation is looking for a proper location to develop multi-level parking in a commercial hub of Bhopal, but, it will take some time as this area is very congested," Shrivastava said.

The construction of another multi-level parking in MP Nagar Zone, I, which had begun five years, is also on hold for the last three years. "Construction of the multi-level parking had to be put on hold due to the corporation's financial crisis," BJP corporator of MP Nagar area Surjeet Singh Chouhan said, adding, "Multi-level parking project will also require some support from Bhopal Development Authority (BDA). The work may take some more time to restart."The official parking spaces in MP Nagar can accommodate only over a 1,000 four-wheelers and over 2,000 two-wheelers. Whereas, this place needs parking facility for nearly 5,000 two-wheelers and over 2,000 four-wheelers," official sources said.There are more than 10,000 commercial establishments, including hotels, banks, shops and coaching classes in MP Nagar Zone I and II.

The authorized paid parking areas, mapped by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) in busy Maharana Pratap Nagar (MP Nagar) area include parking in front of Hakeem's hotel, Bapu ki Kutiya, Axis Bank and Batra Hospital. But there are places in this zone where unauthorised people are collecting parking fees by posing as authorised agents of the BMC.Sharing their daily struggle for parking, commuters in this busy locality complain that they are facing inconvenience and blame the city caretakers for ignoring the problem and for not taking any initiative to streamline the traffic system."Even though roads in MP Nagar are wide enough, there is no place to drive. The multi-crore concrete roads have been converted into parking lots," said Amit Mathur and Krishna Sharma, businessmen."Being a commercial hub of the city, either there should have been proper parking space or the civic bodies should have made proper arrangements so that the vehicles are not parked on the roads," said Vaibhav Verma, a student.