Finally,parking woes at PGI likely to be cured soon.

With an average daily footfall of over 5,000 to 6,000 patients in different OPDs alone,it is hard to find a parking space in any of the existing parking lots at the tertiary care institute which are forever choking with vehicles.

In a bid to ease out the problem to some extent,a committee constituted for this matter has identified sites within the campus which can be utilised as parking areas. A committee member on condition of anonymity said measurements of the sites had already been taken including the viability to turn these spaces into parking lots as well. However,it is yet to be decided as to how much finance would be involved for creating the new parking sites. A meeting in this regard had been fixed for March 28 to finalise the proposal,said the official.

The proposed sites would come up near the nursing college,another one near the sarai building,and another is proposed behind the director’s office near the girls hostel. A second multi-level parking is also proposed to come up in PGIMER other than the existing one near the new OPD Block which was the first multi-level parking lot in the city.

PGIMER spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar said,“Parking is a perennial problem in PGIMER. The only solution to the problem is adding new parking lots which help the patients and their attendants in a big way.”

In fact,some of the existing parking lots are not even metalled leaving the patients struggling to park their vehicles. “It is not my responsibility to metal the parking lot,it is the responsibility of the institute,” said a contractor of one of these parking lots. PGI authorities claim that the parking lot behind the research block cannot be metalled as a special mother and child care institute has to come up at that site. “What is the point in first metalling it and then dismantling it for construction of a building?” asked an official.

However,attendants of patients say if the hospital cannot metal it,at least they can level the ground. “My car’s bumper got cracked when I was parking my car as I did not notice a big pothole. At least,labourers can level the ground,” said Jagtar Singh,whose niece is admitted to PGIMER for over a week.

In the past few years while the institute has added specialised centres including Advanced Eye Centre,Advanced Cardiac Centre and Advanced Trauma Centre,parking has remained a perennial problem for both the patients as well as the institute.

While Advanced Cardiac Centre has a small parking lot with a capacity of holding 60 cars,Advanced Eye Centre does not have a parking lot and the patients’ attendants have to park their two-wheelers near New OPD block and four-wheelers in multi-level parking lot. Advanced Trauma Centre also does not have a parking lot of its own and patients’ relatives have to park their vehicles behind Chuttani Block and walk back to the ATC.