Underground parking lots may be auctioned

The underground parking lots are present in Sectors 8 and 17. The MC has time and again tried to encourage their use without much success. Earlier,the market associations had been asked that the shopkeepers should park their vehicles at the underground parking lots so that the space in the surface parking lots remains vacant for the customers. This has also not worked.

The city has around 8 lakh registered vehicles and new vehicles are rapidly being added to the roads. However,the paid parking lots have not seen much increase in the past decade. The parking lots are overflowing with vehicles. In fact vehicles are often seen parked outside the parking lots also. The condition is such that vehicles are parked even on the zones marked for fire tenders to pass. This leaves little space for emergency vehicles.

Residential areas may get underground parking lots

With the parking spaces in the city shrinking,a proposal for having underground parking lots is being contemplated. Due to the city being landlocked,there is limited scope for having additional surface parking lots.While there are a few underground parking lots in the markets,it is being contemplated that even the community parking lots in the residential areas could also be underground.

The aim is to ensure that the green cover in the city is not destroyed.There is a demand from the residents to have community parking lots in different sectors. One such parking lot was built in Sector 19. the approval for sites for the same has not been given by the UT Architecture Department as for more such parking lots to be built,the green spaces would have to be sacrificed. In order avoid such a situation,it is being mulled that the community parking lots can be built underground. The modalities for the same are yet to be worked out.

In the residential areas it is common to find vehicles parked on both sides of the roads. Even though paver blocks have been installed around the parks to create space for parking,this is not sufficient. With families having two or more cars,the problem becomes acute in the multi-storey houses.