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Bhandarkar Road residents want better parking system from hotels
Haphazardly parked vehicles of the people visiting restaurants and corporate offices clog the dead-end road and make it cumbersome to park or take out cars for people who already live there
Adding to the woes of the already precarious traffic situation in the area, establishments on Lane No 10, Bhandarkar Road are making life difficult for residents with clumsy parking measures.
Haphazardly parked vehicles of the people visiting restaurants and corporate offices clog the dead-end road and make it cumbersome to park or take out cars for people who already live there.
According to residents, Hippie@Heart and two other resto-bars in the area are the primary cause of the traffic congestion.
Locals claim that when the hotels’ five parking spaces are full during rush hour, their customers usually park under the ‘No Parking’ signboards. Restaurants even bring water tankers and park their vehicles in the same areas during the day.
“We’ve been dealing with this issue for the past four years. We simply want the parking situation to be resolved. What happens if there is an emergency?” voices Shilpa Godbole, brand head at Apace Apparels, who lives in the nearby vicinity.
Godbole was forced to call the Deccan traffic division police early in the morning after seeing cars blocking the route outside Hippie@Heart due to people who had reserved a studio for a dance session.
“Because we don’t want our neighbours to feel inconvenienced, our valets park the cars outside the lane, especially on weekends,” explained Nitish Mistry, managing head for Hippie@Heart.
“Those who park in the lane do not pay attention to us. So, we asked those who were affected to take a photo and send it to us, and then we forwarded it to the police to file a report. We spoke with the manager of another hotel, who agreed to work with us on the problem.”
At the mouth of Lane 10 is also an HDFC bank branch that also does not have any assigned parking for both its staff and customers. Locals find it difficult to take out cars and park them because the roads are only six metres wide.
“Hardly any of these establishments have parking facilities and visitors have to depend on public spaces for their vehicles. In the absence of enough parking spaces, they haphazardly park their vehicles and often in no-parking zones,” one of the officegoers in the area said.
Furthermore, locals complained that the lane leads to a walkway that was once beautified. They expressed dismay over the walkway, which is now littered with gutka, cigarette packets and liquor bottles. None of the hotels accept responsibility for the garbage.
The issue has been frequently raised by the locals; however, the civic authorities are rather lax about it.
“Today, I called the Deccan traffic division police and informed them of the problems. However, their only response was that the lane was blocked and they couldn’t turn the towing truck. They did, however, delegate the task to the Pune city traffic police, who arrived at 11:30 am and towed away one car,” Godbole stated.
Residents only beseech the traffic police to be prompt so that it acts as a deterrent to those who violate traffic rules.
“We cannot stay in one place for a long time as we need to cover the entire area” a Deccan traffic division police official, who did not wish to be identified, said.
“We tow cars and motorcycles that are parked in places where they should not be. We try to resolve any tweets about illegal parking in the area as soon as possible because towing occurs frequently. Apart from this, there isn’t much else we can do.”
Vijay Magar, DCP (traffic), stated, “We have a detailed plan in place to decongest FC Road, JM Road and the Deccan area. Vehicles parked haphazardly in front of upscale establishments and hotels will be fined.”
