Police to clear illegal parking space created on roadsides

With parking space becoming a growing problem, shops and establishments in Coimbatore are doing every efforts to create their ‘own parking space’ in public space.

This ranges from the practice of keeping bricks, wooden poles and metal footpaths and even employing security guard whose duty is to ensure that vehicles are not parked in front of the shop keeping the space for customers to enter the shop. Otherwise, they resort to these practices to ensure that customers visiting their shop alone get to park their vehicles there, unmindful of the fact that it is a public space.

Narrow lanes

By and large, lack of parking space is a problem faced in every part of the city. The issue is worse in narrow lanes in and around Town Hall, Variety Hall Road, Oppanakkara Street, Sukrawarpet and even R.S. Puram, which is regarded as the well-planned locality in the city.

With majority of the old buildings and even new ones lacking parking space, parts of the road are occupied by vehicles parked in front of offices, shops and establishments. Some of the shops have placed their own barricades in front of the building to create their own parking area.

A wholesale dealer from Variety Hall Road said that they are forced to create the parking space for customers on the side of road as the old buildings do not have provision for parking.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Sujit Kumar said that the practice of shops and establishments placing their own barricades occupying motorable space on the road will be addressed immediately.

“We have noted the use of iron platforms that are placed to create way into shops and other establishments. Though this can be tolerated to an extend, no shops or establishments have the right to create their own parking space on the road. We have planned to conduct weekly special drives to clear such barricades placed illegally on the road. If a shop is found repeating the practice, the barricades will be seized,” said Mr. Kuamr.

He said that shops and establishments should cooperate in sharing the available parking space on the side of roads, especially in places where one side parking has been implemented.

One side parking is currently followed in places like Cross Cut Road, D.B. Road, Raja Street, Range Gowder Street and part of NSR Road, he added.