Amid an exponential rise in Puducherry’s vehicle population, limited parking space, narrow roads and poor traffic management have made motoring a nightmarish experience in the coastal town.
The chaotic situation when it comes to parking on thoroughfares has been worsening every day, and the authorities are yet to give serious thought to improving existing spaces and creating additional facilities, residents allege.
The Boulevard, the nerve-centre of Puducherry, along with important thoroughfares like the Jawaharlal Nehru Street, the Mahatma Gandhi Road and the Bussy Street, are considered a shopper’s delight due to the availability of numerous showrooms catering to the needs of different income groups. In spite of the increase in the number of vehicles, these lanes and bylanes remain as they were 20 years ago.
Puducherry has more than two lakh private vehicles and a substantial fleet of commercial vehicles. The town has been registering a substantial increase in vehicular traffic every year. But since the parking lots remained limited, people are forced to park their vehicles on the roadside.
“With Puducherry having a grid structure, it is easy to make alternate streets one-way and allow residents to park their vehicles on one side of the street. It is high time that paid parking is introduced and special arrangements are made for people who cannot walk,” said Sunaina Mandeen of PondyCAN, a non-profit organisation.
Rather than one big parking area, smaller designated areas could be assigned. Enough workshops and meetings on transport planning have been conducted with foreign experts and members of civil society. The suggestions should be put into practice and not just end up in a report, she said.
Though the Department of Town and Country Planning’s rules mandate parking facilities in commercial complexes, it has not been implemented by many multi-storey buildings.
“As per Puducherry Planning Authority (PPA) norms, commercial buildings have to provide 30 sq.m of parking area for every 70 sq.m of floor area. The PPA has been insisting that building owners provide off-street parking facilities,” an official said.
Though there has been much talk of readying a multi-layer parking facility, particularly in the old prison complex on Jawaharlal Nehru Street, it is yet to see the light of day.
In an effort to decongest the ever-increasing vehicular traffic, a proposal was mooted in 2007 to demolish the 35,000 sq.ft complex on Nehru Street and convert it into a multi-level parking facility for cars and two-wheelers.
The prison complex was demolished, and the municipality converted it into a paid parking facility for cars and two-wheelers. However, the proposal on multi-level parking is yet to attain fruition.
