Gurgaon’s parking shortage
Space crunch drives shoppers crazy
Bhawna Gandhi, TNN, Jan 21, 2011, 05.47am IST
GURGAON: Parking problems in the malls and marketplaces, continue to be a major source of concern for people in Gurgaon.
Be it the Qutab Plaza, Galleria market, Vyapar Kendra, Sector 14, or other shopping malls in the city, lack of parking space in most of the places make life difficult for both shoppers as well as local residents.
In the absence of proper parking space, people visiting these malls and markets park their cars illegally and hapazardly on the streets, thus leading to huge traffic jams. Often vacant plots nearby a mall are temporarily converted to parking areas.
But these are no permanent solutions and residents say that they are fed up with the parking situation in the city.
Residents claim that commercial establishments near residential areas make life difficult for residents. But authorities say they are helpless; in the absence of sufficient parking space, they have no option but to allow parking in any vacant area that lies close to these markets.
Galleria Market, in new Guragon, also suffers from poor parking facilities.
Market associations feel that the law should be stricter to prevent such a mess.
Suresh Mandhwani, general secretary of Central Arcade Market Association says, Its a free parking in our market but the problem is even many of those who are not visiting the mall, park here. Thus, often there is no space for shoppers to park, so they do so in whatever vacant spots available.
Kuldeep Bhatia, general secretary of shopping mall mercantile association says, If the maintenance agency deploys more guards or personnel to prevent illegal parking, the situation would get better. Also if only one-way traffic is allowed near the market region, it could resolve traffic hassles in Gurgaon.
When contacted, police officials said that they are taking the matter seriously. We are towing away the illegally parked vehicles on a daily basis. The problem will be solved very soon, says Bharti Arora, DCP Traffic, Gurgaon.
Commissioner of Police, S S Deswal, is also optimistic about cracking down on illegal parking. But he also says, There is indeed a shortage of parking space near the malls and markets of the city. Here comes the need of multilevel parking and the district administration is working towards it.
Read more: Space crunch drives shoppers crazy – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/Space-crunch-drives-shoppers-crazy/articleshow/7329562.cms#ixzz1Be0w9tqv
A Millennium Citys ever-shrinking parking space
Sameer Kochhar & Gursharan Dhanjal, TNN, Jan 11, 2011, 05.38am IST
It was only in September last year that residents of Gurgaon found something to cheer about: the Metro had finally rolled into the Millennium City. But the smiles did not last long. As the rush grew, the space to park ones vehicles decreased. Visitors to malls in the city started using the metro parking lots, further aggravating the difficulties.
It is not only the parking at Metro stations that has been the bane for the citys residents: the problem is equally acute near the malls, in the citys shopping centres and even office complexes. The resultant chaos is there for everyone to see on a daily basis roadsides have become parking zones and vacant plots, inside our outside residential colonies in connivance with builders/owners, have become unauthorized parking lots, with parking charges being randomly decided. A case in point is a parking lot being run by ProFac in Sushant Lok A Block wherein only a wall divides this from Metro parking on MG Road. Therefore, there should be no problem for local authorities in taking this over and coverting it into formal multi-level parking servicing MG Road station. It is not that parking was never a problem in the city. In fact, it was over six years ago that the local authorities, realising the parking mess that was building up in the mall city, first mooted the plan of having multi-level parking lots. The plan was reiterated in line with the development work initiated in Delhi for the recently-concluded Commonwealth Games. But having announced and re-announced the plan, the city authorities chose to sit back.
The shortage of parking space in GoodGaon could have been easily tackled, if both the local authorities and the Metro officials had used a little bit of foresight. The area given to the metro authorities for parking could easily have been developed even as the tracks were being laid as multi-level parking lots, enabling a multi-fold increase in the available parking space. In fact, this is something that can be taken up even now by the metro authorities since the commuters will only welcome any relief. The continuing parking woes in the Millennium City also hold an important lesson for the authorities with regard to all new and upcoming projects.
Most of existing commercial centres have underprovided for parking space. Development projects, especially those of malls, shopping and office complexes should be linked to the mandatory provision of adequate parking spaces, else clearances should not be given. This is especially important with the local authorities having announced major development plans for the Gurgaon-Manesar region that are likely to lead to a spurt in the volume of traffic leading to increased need for parking space as well. Here one has to only look at the conditions in the existing industrial hub of the cityUdyog Vihar. Yet another reason for the citys parking problemsand the solution to which is in the hands of both the local and metro authoritiesis the lack of a suitable intra-city transport network. The absence of such network brings more private vehicles on the roads and resultantly in the parking lots.
Read more: A Millennium Citys ever-shrinking parking space – The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/A-Millennium-Citys-ever-shrinking-parking-space/articleshow/7256217.cms#ixzz1Akl0aDbY