No place to park at textile mart

SURAT, April 29: The hub of business activity in the city is crying out for parking space; the space so designated has been gobbled up by...

SURAT, April 29: The hub of business activity in the city is crying out for parking space; the space so designated has been gobbled up by shops. Besides the 15,000 shopkeepers, 40,000 employees all vehicle-owners, 10,000 customers on two-wheelers and hundreds of cloth-laden tempos and trucks come to the market every day.

Owing to the inadequate parking space in the market, the service road was being used for parking until February, when the traffic police began a crackdown against parking there. Police Commissioner Kuldip Sharma has hired two cranes from Vadodara for removing vehicles parked on the road. 8220;We have clear instructions from the commissioner to seize all vehicles illegally parked on the ring road8221;, Assistant Commissioner of Police C J Rathod told Express Newsline.

A few traders who have some parking space are said to be extorting vehicle owners; four-wheeler owners have to shell out upto Rs 60 per hour while two-wheelers pay upto Rs 15 for parking. When contacted, Rathod said he was unaware that vehicle owners were paying exorbitant parking charges. 8220;We are charging vehicle owners for violating parking norms and creating traffic obstructions where we have put up No Parking8217; boards8221;, he added.

Textile market secretary Devi Lal claims that till two months ago there was no parking problem on ring road; a 30-foot stretch of the main road was used for parking. It was only after the police launched a drive against vehicles parked on that road that traders took up the matter with the police commissioner and municipal commissioner S Jagadeesan. No solution has been found yet.

The police say a multi-storied parking lot could be constructed in a nearby plot currently used for parking, the solution, according to the textile market secretary, is to allow vehicles to be parked on the service road.

SMC standing committee member Bakul Patel maintains that the parking problem would not have become so acute had the town planning department not colluded with traders in allowing them to build shops on parking space to sell to unsuspecting people.

Turning the tables on the elected wing, Director of Planning R D Desai said the parking problem had been aggravated because the elected wing cancelled a contract for pay-and-park8217;, which had eased traffic congestion and the parking problem to a great extent.

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But for reasons known to the elected wing, they cancelled the pay-and-park contract, he said. Patel and Devi Lal, however, defended the decision of the elected wing to cancel the contract for pay-and-park because the contractor was an 8220;anti-social element8221;.