Shimla, June 10: The twin problems of parking and traffic jams caused by abject failure of the government on decongesting Shimla town are proving a major challenge. Attempts to construct more parking places have proved counterproductive, forcing the Municipal Corporation to look for other options.
While the plans of Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) to run battery-operated golf cart and enforce plying of vehicles with odd and even numbers on alternate days to reduce congestion shelved, construction of parkings on main roads without service lanes has created major traffic bottlenecks.
Parking spaces have been constructed at The Lift, Sanjauli, Lakkar Bazaar, Chhota Shimla and near Tourist Information Office (Shimla Bypass), increasing the parking capacity from 500 to 3,500 vehicles. The capacity is set to touch 5,000 but traffic woes are far from over.
Three major parking lots, which have come up on the Cart Road within 250 m distance from Lift to Holiday Home in the heart of the city, have compounded the problem creating long traffic jams throughout the day, especially during the tourist season.
There are no service lanes and separate entry and exit points in the parking lots. A large number of vehicles parked on the roadside near the parking result in traffic congestion. “It takes 10 minutes to reach Mall road on foot but travelling by car it takes more than 30 minutes and sometime more than an hour due to traffic jams as parking near the Lift has become a major traffic bottleneck”, said a Bamloe resident of Dinesh Kumar. There are more than 80,000 registered vehicles in Shimla municipal area but the number of vehicles plying in the town is about one lakh. The situation worsens when tourist vehicles arrive adding to the congestion.
“Shimla is very congested. It took us more than two hours to travel 10 km after entering the city. Getting a parking was even tougher”, said Vivek, a tourist from Bangalore. “We are not in favour of creating more parking spaces as it would make people buy more vehicles”, said former Deputy Mayor Tikender Singh Panwar, adding that the overcrowded Hill Capital has no carrying capacity for more vehicles.
Good public transport, ropeways, elevators and lifts from Cart Road to The Mall Road for vertical mobility of people would substantially ease congestion and enhance mobility in the city, he said adding that a new lift is being constructed adjacent to the old one. More pedestrian space is being created. Under the smart city plan there is a proposal for a pedestrian ring along the entire Cart Road, besides 50 elevators and lifts.
The comprehensive mobility and parking plan under “smart City” envisages construction of pedestrian paths along Cart Road, foot bridges and cycling track and cable ways. An agreement has been signed with Usha Brecho for construction of 3.5 km cable car from Tourist Information Centre to Jodha Nivas near Ridge, said Panwar.
Himachal High Court had directed the government not to register new vehicles if owners do not have adequate parking space but the government has allowed change of use of covered parkings under sanctioned plans under the new retention policy. A plan to construct tunnels from Tawi to Barrier, Kanlong to Shanahan, HimFed Petrol Pump to Cancer Hospital Nallah at Snowdon measuring 3.80 km was mooted under Jawahar Lal Uran Renewal Mission (JNNURM) but it was shelved.
Source Tribune India
