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Pune city gardens facing parking, encroachment problems
According to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the garden witnesses about 10,000 visitors on an average every month and the number only increases during vacations and festivals like Diwali and Ganpati
Popular gardens such as Saras Baug, Vartak Garden and even Rajeev Gandhi Zoological Park (Katraj) are facing serious issues like encroachment by hawkers and parking mismanagement. While visitors whine about these issues frequently, the administration claims that there have been no formal complaints.
Saras Baug is an iconic garden in Pune and a popular draw among tourists, devotees of Lord Ganesh, and city residents. According to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), the garden witnesses about 10,000 visitors on an average every month and the number only increases during vacations and festivals like Diwali and Ganpati. On weekends too, people visit this garden along with their kids as it has a huge play area as well as games and rides outside the park. With the number of visitors rising however, the garden also faces issues such as insufficient parking area, mismanagement of available parking areas by the PMC and encroachment.
Amol Shinde, a frequent visitor, said, “I visited the park last Sunday. There was a huge crowd. There is parking space made available by the corporation but when I entered the area to park, I saw vehicles parked in a very haphazard manner with no one to keep a check on the visitors. I managed to park my vehicle but when I came back after two hours, there were a large number of vehicles parked haphazardly and people were facing difficulty getting their vehicles out. There were no lights either. This is not just one day… it happens very often…”
Madhav Jagtap, encroachment officer, PMC, said, “The staff from the encashment department takes time to act against hawkers who encroach upon the area. We will continue to take anti-encroachment action against these hawkers.”
An office-bearer from the Saras Baug management on condition of anonymity said, “The encroachment issue is worsening day by day. Now, even office-bearers are facing difficulties entering the park. Earlier, at least the local representatives used to try and prevent encroachment but now, due to the lack of people’s representation, authorities are not keen to take action against these hawkers.”
Apart from Saras Baug, Vartak Garden at Shaniwar Peth, which is most popular among senior citizens, also faces parking issues. Many a time, vehicles are parked in front of the garden gate. The ongoing work on the metro foot-overbridge (FOB) is making the situation worse.
Ashok Ghorpade, head of the PMC garden department, said, “The department hasn’t received any complaints from the visitors about parking issues.” He did not comment on whether citizens could register complaints about such issues or action would be taken.
