The ever growing number of vehicles has forced the police to put increasing number of parking restrictions on small roads in the city. In the past one year,as many of 100 new restrictions have been put in place despite shrinking parking space. Since November last year,Pune polices traffic control branch has implemented one-sided parking (also called alternate P1-P2 parking) on as many as 40 roads. During the same time,no parking zones have been declared on over 60 roads. Most of these are approaching roads or bylanes connecting to arterial roads. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic Control Branch) Vishwas Pandhare said,If we look at the number of vehicles that get added every year,Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad will require additional 350 acres of land every year to accommodate them. Many of these vehicles are parked on roads even when the owners of these vehicles are away. We have been receiving a lot of complaint of traffic jams on approaching roads,which are also resulting in traffic snarls on main roads. Experts say that owing to increasing traffic snarls people prefer to take bylanes. Activist Prashant Inamdar of Pedestrian First said,We have observed that people are now more often using bylanes. The reason for this is traffic snarls on approaching roads and the increase in number of roads that have been converted into one ways. People prefer to take bylanes to avoid long detours. Pandhare added,We do not have any policy that makes it mandatory for vehicle buyers to first arrange for a parking space. The development plan of the Pune Municipal Corporation has no specific policy on no parking zones,which is forcing police to put more restrictions on roads.
