Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s premium parking causes traffic jams, inconvenience

Madhya Pradesh: Bhopal Municipal Corporation’s premium parking causes traffic jams, inconvenience

Purpose behind multi-level smart parking defeated

Staff ReporterUpdated: Friday, November 05, 2021, 07:43 PM IST
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Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Taking a U-turn on its decision to decongest the New Market by developing a multi-level parking around, the Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now developed a premium parking place in the market’s periphery to earn money. This is causing traffic jams daily.

This is the space where vehicles were parked before multi-level parking was constructed. The traffic police towed vehicles parked here to discourage people from parking illegally.

However, the new premium parking is causing loss to multi-level parking, which was developed at cost of Rs 35 crore and inaugurated in 2018.

Over 150 vehicles remain parked in the premium parking place every day while the figure shoots up during festivals.

On the other hand, the multi-level parking is running in losses and remains vacant. The multi-level parking has a capacity to accommodate over 1,000 vehicles but hardly 250 vehicles are parked there in a day.

As the premium parking is developed around market, people choose to park their vehicles near shops and avoid using multi-level parking.

Former BMC corporators, traffic experts and regular visitors condemn the decision. They claim that road from Roshanpura to Nanake petrol pump becomes heavily congested due to new parking during peak hours.

Earlier, people would park vehicles on the spot but now the space is heavily occupied, they say. The charges are Rs 30, Rs 50, Rs 70, Rs 90 and Rs 110 depending on the hours in premium parking.

Heavy traffic

Former BMC chairperson Kailash Mishra said officials developed parking on road, which remains congested and is a reason that area witnesses traffic jams in peak hours. He says premium parking is costly and BMC is earning revenue through it. But, due to over 200 parked vehicles, the road gets jammed in evening, raising risk of accidents.

Multi-level parking

Former minister and Local MLA PC Sharma said only those with their shops in front of market should be allowed to use the space. The vehicles of visitors create heavy jam and thus the BMC and traffic department should ensure that vehicles are parked in the multi-level parking.

Official speaks

Additional municipal commissioner Shaswat Singh Meena said premium parking in New Market was developed as people were not using the multi-level parking and also there were complaints of illegal parking around. Now, people are ready to shell out extra money to park their vehicles near shops, he says.

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