Kolkata: Road clogged, but no takers for Lake Mall basement parking lot

Even as shop owners in Lake Market on Rashbehari Avenue vow to hit the street to fight for the customers' right to park in front of the market, there are few who prefer the parking lot 12 times the size in the market basement.
“Even when all the parking lots get filled up, there is ample unused space in the underground facility. Shoppers don’t prefer to drive down the steep ramps. Instead, they want to park at the doorstep, buy what they want and leave. It’s how all shoppers behave,” points out Lake Bazar Sanjuktya Byabsaye Samiti joint secretary Monotosh Banerjee.



On Thursday, the 400-odd shop owners of Lake Market had blocked Rashbehari Avenue, demanding the restoration of the parking lot for six cars in front of the market. Just when they were agitating, more than half the basement was vacant. Only twice a week — on Wednesday evening when a department store offers big discounts and on Saturday evening when the mall draws cine-goers, foodies and shoppers — that the underground parking lot goes full.

The mall management has tried to encourge more shoppers to park their cars in the basement by first switching the entry and exit gates and then by slashing the parking fee from Rs 30 per hour to Rs 10. But it has not borne any result.

Rimjhim Sanyal, who has to sometimes spend upto half an hour to locate an empty slot in one of the nearby alleys but never drives down to the basement to park, said women felt unsafe entering a basement.

Acop said it wasn’t just about the six parking lots but the spillover that caused traffic snarls. “The proposal to ban the parking was first mooted eight months ago. When we tried to implement it on Thursday, the shop owners resisted,” said a sergeant KMC has informed police that if there is any unauthorised parking, it could take whatever action it deemed fit. But it has not commented on the four VIP parking slots on Rashbehari Road.