LUDHIANA: The parking mess in Ghumar Mandi market can become a thing of the past with the first
underground parking concept on Ferozepur Road, as the detailed project report (DPR) is ready and will be put up to the MC by April 20. Aecom, the consultant company for
Smart City Mission, has prepared this project report, according to which underground parking has been proposed from Aarti Chowk to Bhai Wala Chowk.
It has been proposed to utilize the service lane for constructing this underground parking, and there is capacity of parking around 650 vehicles (including two-wheelers and four-wheelers). MC officials have already taken approval from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) for constructing this
underground parking lot, because
NHAI is already constructing an elevated road project on Ferozepur Road, for which the construction work has to take place. Therefore, MC will utilize the time to construct this underground parking lot. The total cost of this project has been estimated to Rs 48 crore approximately.
Notably, Ghumar Mandi is a hub of commercial activities, and shoppers not only from the city, but also from other cities visit here. But in the absence of adequate parking space, people park their cars on the road, adding to the traffic congestion in the market. MC has another plan of retrofitting the Ghumar Mandi market, but that is not possible unless it conceives a designated parking space for vehicles.
Officials were also planning to make this market vehicle-free, and all these things are possible only when people get a separate parking space. Earlier, there was a proposal to provide parking space to vehicles inside Feroze Gandhi Market parking lot, but shopkeepers of Ghumar Mandi rejected this proposal, after which MC came up with the underground parking project.
Rahul Gagneja, MC’s executive engineer of the Buildings and Road department, said they are ready with the project report of an underground parking lot on Ferozepur Road on the pattern of Chandigarh, which would mainly cater to the traffic of Ghumar Mandi. He said they would get the DPR on April 20, after which they would further start the procedure of sanctions from technical committees, and tendering. “This will be the first such project in the entire state,” he claimed.
Meanwhile, residents said that though parking space was required for the market, the underground project might be a risky affair. Civil Lines resident Manoj Kumar said officials had failed to solve the issue of water-logging in the underpasses, because water gets accumulated there during the rainy season. He said officials should find a permanent solution to the problem.
Monitoring panel meet tomorrow
A meeting of the district-level review and monitoring committee of urban development is going to take place on April 19, where
Congress MP Ravneet Bittu is going to review the ongoing projects under the Smart City Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna, Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (Amrut), and Swachh Bharat Mission from MC offices. All Congress MLAs are likely to participate in the meeting for taking out a report regarding projects ongoing under various missions, and other projects. Under the Smart City Mission, three projects have kicked off, including installation of solar panels on MC buildings, replacement of existing street lights with LED lights, and installation of road signages.