To avoid ₹10 parking fee, Panchkula residents flout traffic rules

Commuters were seen parking on the main roads, footpaths, berms

Implementing the paid parking system in Panchkula has not had the effect desired by the authorities.

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Three days after the city’s main commercial hubs in Sectors 8, 9 and 10 began charging vehicles, fewer people can be seen parking in the lots, and can instead be found parking on roads, berms and footpaths, while the city’s traffic police look on.

Only recently, the Punjab and Haryana high court had ordered that idle vehicles parked on main as well as tertiary roads should be towed. The court had observed that the practice not only results in congestion but also increases chances of accidents.

PROCEEDS TO BE USED FOR WELFARE

Charges for parking at the lots are ₹5 for two-wheelers and ₹10 for four-wheelers. Revenue from parking in these hubs is designated to go to the Panchkula Red Cross Society and the district council for child welfare, who are jointly managing the parking lots.

Among the biggest in the city, these lots can accommodate a large number of vehicles, but people seem to have circumvented the regulation.

In one parking lot in Sector 10, commuters were seen parking their vehicles on footpaths alongside the main road, with some even parking on the main or internal roads. Rohit Attri, a shopkeeper in Sector 10, said, “Earlier, the parking lot used to be full all day and night. But the day parking was made payable, people are parking on roads, footpaths. When objections are raised, they say they will be back in only a few minutes.”

An employee working at the Sector 9 parking lot said, “No one listens to us. It is impossible to tell hundreds of people who come here to not park outside the lot.” People have also started parking behind the showrooms, a space earlier used only if the main parking spaces were packed.

In the second parking lot in Sector 10, outside hotels, fewer vehicles were parked as compared to earlier days. The scenario is the same in Sectors 8 and 9 parking lots.

OFFICIAL RESPONSE

On their part, traffic police officials have said that they will soon start a drive to tow away vehicles parked outside the lots.

Inspector Mahabir, SHO traffic, Panchkula, said, “We have chalked out a plan and prepared ‘no parking’ sign-boards to be installed on footpaths and road berms. We will soon begin towing away the vehicles and placing clamps on them, if they are found parked outside the prescribed parking spaces despite signboards.”