First accommodation reservation is struck

City engineer Madhav Harihar told The Indian Express that the Laxmi Road plot will be the first among the seven in the old city, reserved for parking purpose, which will be used for the same purpose by taking advantage of the new rules.

The property in Narayan Peth, popularly known as hamal wada, at survey no 709, 710, 437 C 5 and 437 C 6, admeasuring 28,848 square feet was put under reservation for parking purpose in 1987 development plan. The PMC had acquired 15,000 square feet land after the plot was reserved. However, the administration could not acquire the remaining land as the tenants had challenged the reservation in court.

The land owners Baban Jagnade, Nalini Nene and Sunita Harip submitted a proposal few months back expressing their willingness to construct a single storied parking lot if the corporation allowed them to use the FSI of the plot for residential and commercial purpose on the same property. The civic officials accepted the proposal after carefully srutinising the it. The civic officials said they preferred to accept the proposal since the parking lot adjacent to Laxmi Road was need of the city while the court case would have delayed the entire case for an uncertain period.

According to the proposal, the land owners will construct a single storied structure for parking purpose, which will be handed over to the municipal corporation. The parking lot admeasuring about 14,000 square feet, will be be exclusively for four wheelers. The civic officials said the parking lot could accommodate 60 four-wheelers on the ground floor and the same number of four wheelers on the first floor.

According to the civic officials, the property owners had agreed that they would first construct a parking lot and would commence the development of the property later. The property owners have also agreed to construct a thoroughfare in the same property, having a width of 25 feet so that four wheelers would have easy entrance from Laxmi Road and exit in Narayan Peth near Pune Marathi Granthalaya.

The civic officials maintain that the parking lot on Laxmi Road, the most busy road, would improve the traffic conditions not only on Laxmi Road but also on Kumthekar and Kelkar Road. They point out that in absence of adequate parking space the car owners, heading for Laxmi Road, are forced to park their vehicles either on Kelkar Road or on Kumthekar Road. The parking of four-wheelers on these two roads reduce the width of usable road resulting into traffic congestion. The officials say that they were planning to ban parking of four-wheelers on Laxmi, Kelkar and Kumthekar roads, once the single storied parking at hamal wada comes up.

They said the corporation had received a similar proposal from a property owner near Alka talkies, whose property has been reserved for parking purpose in the development plan. The plan is being scrutinised by the officials.