Parking problems abound in Dwarka

Dwarka: The problem of parking in Dwarka has become bigger and is still growing day by day with the increased settlement.

Poor parking planning in the market areas of Dwarka has made life tough for the people. Service lanes of the markets and the nearby societies can be seen packed with parked vehicles. This leaves no space for the other vehicles to use the service lane and it is a most inconvenient task for anyone to use those service roads.

At Sector 6 and Sector 10 markets, at the markets around Ashirvad Chowk, at Ramphal Chowk area, at Sector 22 and 23 near malls, the vehicles are parked on the roads and in service lanes.

Also read | Uneven footpaths in Dwarka- Height of lack of planning

SK Sharma, a resident of Sector 10 says, “ This is a complete failure of town planning, the city is facing severe parking problems. I am surprised that there is no parking space for the people who come to the markets. As a result, they have to use the remaining space. Besides, there is a charge for parking in Sector 6. People park vehicles on the road and often the traffic police tows away these vehicles.”

Besides, the emerging market areas like Sector 12 have no parking space and the visitors are compelled to park their vehicles on the roads. Aarti Meena resident of Sector 12 said, “Looking at the ever-increasing problem of car parking I could say that the Dwarka subcity would be in trouble in the future. You can see at the market which has come up recently at Sector 12 near Bal Bharti School, there is no parking space and on both sides of the road vehicles are parked.”

Given the lack of parking space, societies have started encroaching the footpaths by parking their cars. Some societies and schools have put boards and have employed security guards and barricades to grab a portion of the road or footpaths to park their vehicles. Not only this, in many places the schools have been parking their vehicles on the roads in front of their schools. School buses, cabs, and vans can be seen parked everywhere on the roads.

The places for fire tenders too are used for parking. According to experts, this can be very dangerous in case of a fire as there would no accessibility for fire brigades amidst parked vehicles in service lanes and the roads.

Several meetings of civic and resident bodies have been organised on the subject. However, no concrete decisions have been taken till now.

Anjana Sinha, general secretary of RWA, Dwarkadheesh Apartments Sector 12 says, “Neither DDA nor Municipal Corporation seems serious in solving the issue in the near future. They must think over it seriously as now the areas near metro stations too are being used for parking. There must be designated parking for markets and other public places if Dwarka is said to be one of the most planned satellite cities."

In this series, CitySpidey will be highlighting the issue of parking from the micro-level.