Parking problems hit city traders

TRADERS ARE worried over steady decline in number of customers for want of suitable parking place. The worst-hit retail markets are Navin Market, Gumti market and Birhana Road market.

TRADERS ARE worried over steady decline in number of customers for want of suitable parking place. The worst-hit retail markets are Navin Market, Gumti market and Birhana Road market.

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Shopkeepers in these markets said parking problem had awfully affected their business in the past three years and even the traffic police seemed to have no clue about the problem.

According to them, though the district administration had proposed to provide adequate parking space to customers but till date nothing was done in this regard. Besides, lifting of cars parked in an irregular manner by traffic police further aggravated the crisis and customers were discouraged, they said.

In order to attract customers, some shop-owners have even employed private security guards to regulate parking but to no avail. They too have proved ineffective.

Quite often, irregularly parked vehicles not only caused roadblocks but also hit movement of pedestrians. On many occasions, it has been found that due to wrong parking or parking of a vehicle just behind an earlier parked vehicle, one has to wait for hours for the owner of the wrongly parked vehicle to come and assist him in taking out his vehicle.

According to shopkeepers, the problem is faced due to two main reasons.

Firstly, almost all shop owners who come early in the morning park their vehicles just in front of their shops. One side of the market road allocated for parking becomes full with vehicles of shopowners and no place is left for customers to park their vehicles. Consequently, they park their vehicles in an irregular manner causing difficulties to others.

Secondly, with growing number of four-wheelers in the city, parking place has fallen short.