3 min readStockholmSep 23, 2015 01:09 AM IST
First published on: Sep 23, 2015 at 01:09 AM IST
If you enter a nuclear shelter in Stockholm today, what you will find are not anti-radiation suits, gas masks, tinned food or even medicines, but rows of cars.
Like most European capital cities, parking is a major traffic problem in Stockholm, especially in the old part of the city by the Baltic Sea which houses government offices. The well-oiled public transport system and cycling tracks provide alternatives but if you are using a car, some of the most popular and spacious parking spaces here are in these shelters constructed during the Cold War.
The Catherine Rock Shelter, constructed in 1957, was then the world’s largest nuclear bomb shelter with the capacity to house 20,000 people. Its three floors, with a surface area of 15,900 sq m, now act as public parking.
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At this unmanned shelter, the doors open automatically — if there is space available —once you punch in your credit card details in the machine installed outside.
There are car wash spaces and a small shopping arcade up front, followed by slots where cars are parked at an angle on both sides of a tunnelled alley. Entry to retrieve your car is facilitated by by punching in your credit card details once again — the shelter closes at 1 am on weekdays.
The shelter has ventilation, air purification and a heating system powered by a diesel power plant. It also has a cooling plant, fed by ice tanks, in case it ever has to house 20,000 people at one time.
“This is a great place to park your vehicle during winters because you walk in and feel the comfort level, even without any artificial heating,” says Manu Uniyal, an Indian IT professional settled in Stockholm for the last 15 years.
There are 14,500 bomb and nuclear shelters of various sizes in Stockholm today. Following the end of the Cold War, the low threat level of a nuclear strike was instrumental in changing their usage.
As per the Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, 260 shelters have either been closed down or converted for commercial use since 1998.
In the 1970s, the Swedish authorities shifted focus from a few big nuclear shelters to many smaller shelters across the city. A typical shelter in Stockholm today is a basement in a residential building which is usually used for storage but can be converted into a nuclear shelter within 48 hours.
(This writer was in Stockholm to attend the India Trilateral conference organised by the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the German Marshall Fund of the US)
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