Coimbatore: Every day Ramachandra Road in R S Puram, which is used by commuters from DB Road to reach Mettupalayam Road, gets blocked on and off during peak hours. It happens when two SUVs or mini vans cross each other, as the 30-ft wide road narrows down to a two-lane street, with vehicles parked on both sides.
Similarly, vehicles are parked on the sides of several roads in Town Hall, R S Puram, Saibaba Colony and Singanallur. “Each of these areas, whose layouts were done decades ago, had only two main roads. The rest were meant to be interior roads with only residences, and thus narrower,” recalls 76-year-old R Krishnan, a resident of Periyasamy Road for the past six decades. “Now each interior road has at least four commercial establishments. These do not have parking spaces, so their customers park their vehicles on any space they find,” said another senior citizen, G Varadha, who now prefers taking his walks in the forest college campus.
Other problematic interior roads are West Sambandham Road, Bashyakarlu Road, Periyasamy Road and N S R Road. “Each of these roads has hospitals, clinics, restaurants, schools, gymnasiums and beauty parlours, all of which attract a lot of customers and vehicles,” said a senior corporation official. “We have a paid parking lot on DB Road, but people prefer parking as close to their destination as possible and use the parking lot as a last resort,” he said.
Vehicle drivers are also to be blamed for parking irresponsibly, said commuters. “Some drivers park on road corners, making it difficult for cars to turn. Some drivers do not bother parking as close to the pavement as possible and park diagonally even on narrow roads,” said Rajee S, a restauranteur. “They do not bother ensuring that other cars driving through don’t get blocked,” she added.
Many main roads in the city face frequent traffic jams because of too many cars being parked on them. “The stretch between Avinashilingam College and Kavundampalayam on Mettupalayam Road, parts of Raja Street and Government Arts College Road are difficult to drive through as the roadway becomes narrow,” said C M Jayaraman, a consumer activist from Citizen’s Voice Club. “They should either ban cars from parking or ensure that all establishments have a designated space in front for their customers to park. Otherwise parking lots must be created on all the roads and vehicles should be forced to park only there,” he said. “Roads are meant for movement of vehicles and not for parking of vehicles,” he added.
K V Sadhasivam, traffic inspector, Coimbatore West, said that under the smart city programme, there could be relief in the future. “Under this programme, multi-level parking lots are coming up on DB Road. We also plan to ban parking of heavy vehicles on interior roads, which will reduce congestion. Drivers’ hesitancy to use public parking lots and wanting to park in front of their destinations is the problem,” he said.
