Chennai: Parking
a car at Pondy Bazaar and a few other areas in the city often has one
paying both the Chennai corporation’s parking meter rates and also those
fixed by staff hired on contract on the premises.

A
top official from the corporation has now assured action against such
irregularities. The civic body’s rate is Rs 5 an hour and another Rs 5
for every additional hour. The drivers must collect a ticket, printed
with the car’s number and display it on the dashboard of their vehicles
after parking it.

But
contract workers insist that the car owners buy 10-rupee tickets against
the fixed charge of Rs 5 per hour. The tickets do not have any car
number printed on them and the staff often fails to explain the details
of the billing system they use.

“We
are paid poorly and this extra buck helps us meet our ends,” said a
parking assistant at Pondy Bazaar. “The workers need to deposit at least
Rs 700 every day to the contractors,” said a doorkeeper at the locality
requesting anonymity.

Adding
that after paying the private parking firm the daily deposit money, the
balance additional amount is distributed among workers. Saturdays and
Sundays are always a good hunt as vehicles throng the parking lots, he
noted.

When contacted
about these parking irregularities by workers hired by private firms, a
senior corporation official said so far they had not received any
complaints. “If there are specific complaints necessary action will be
taken,” he said.

City’s parking woes sprout in many forms

City
corporation has installed  parking meters at 12 places. These include
Shanthi Colony, Tara­mani, Purasawalkam, Gandhi Nagar, Whites Road and a
few places in Anna Nagar and Pondy bazaar.

The
corporation started the initiative contracting it to private parties
with an agreement of 11.5 per cent share from the total revenue earned
from ticket collection. Now the deal has reached 19 per cent and
corporation officials find the project good for the civic body.

However, the parking woes in the city do not come to an end, but only sprout in some other form.

If
traffic is conceptualised as the main villain, parking comes as the
sidekick adding to the woes of residents. There are very few places in
the city where one can get their vehicles parked for a certain rate.

“I
used to park my car at Spencer Plaza two years ago, but now they have
increased the rates seeing other malls charging exorbitant rates,” said
S.Madhan, a marketing exe­cutive. On CSIR road in Taramani, two-wheelers
are parked on the footpaths due to lack of space. “The MNCs and other
IT firms should first ensure that there are enough parking for their
employees,” said Harish.S, an IT employee.

In
residential areas like Mylapore and Mandaveli, vehicles are parked in
narrow lanes in front of houses making it difficult to traverse through
the streets. Roads can be widened in places encroached and converted
into parking spaces, feel residents.

With
the ever-growing vehicle population, it’s time the officials and
planners came up with a solution to counter the parking woes.

Chennai bikers most affected

Around
1,000 mot­o­rcycles are add­ed to city roads ever­yday. Almost 75 per
cent of the city’s vehicular population comprises motorcycles as per the
latest estimates.

The
increased ea­r­­ning capacity of people and easily available loans from
banks have only incr­eased the number of moto­rcyc­les on roads.
Mot­o­rists in Chennai feel that in spite of huge growth in vehicle
population, the corporation has done little to ease the congestion on
roads.

According to
official sour­­ces, Chennai has more number of two-whee­lers than Delhi
and Mumbai. “In Adyar,  the are­as under the flyover have been used as
parking spaces, but those are not enough,” feels Gopi Krishnan, a
resident of Gan­dhi Nagar. The case is similar in many parts of Chennai
which do not have enough parking spa­ce for their motorists.

Busy
areas like T.Nagar and Broadway where lakhs of people gather face this
problem and many times bikes get towed away by the traffic personnel.
“We are left with no choice. Our priority is easing out traffic snarls,”
said a senior traffic personnel in T.Nagar.

The
corporation has come up with paid parking spaces for cars in 12 parts
of the city like Pon­dy Bazaar, Adyar, Tara­mani and Mylapore. But,
there seems no respite for motorists from the parking woes.

S.Sumathi
of MRC Nag­ar said, “Most of the time, bikes are parked in  small lanes
and in front of the shops on North Mada Street in Mylapore.” A
senior town planning official in CMDA said the stalled multi-level
parking project in five busy places in the city might help  rein in the
problem to some extent.