The Mumbai Traffic Police have thrown open four parking spaces in Lower Parel to the public free of cost to tackle the problem of illegal parking and the resultant traffic congestion, especially after the closure of Delisle Road rail overbridge (ROB).
The ROB was closed on July 24 after being found unsafe for vehicles, leading to an increase in traffic flow on the roads surrounding the bridge. This has added to the traffic congestion in Lower Parel, which is already plagued by illegally parked vehicles.
Traffic police officials said the additional parking spaces were provided around 15 days ago, and can accommodate up to 6,200 vehicles at any given time.
“On the southbound route, three parking lots have been opened for the general public at One Indiabulls Center, Indiabulls Finance Center and Indiabulls Sky, with a total 2,200 parking spaces. On the northbound route, the pay-and-park facility at Kamala Mills has been converted into a free parking lot and has 4,000 spaces,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic City) Dipali Masirkar said.
Ms. Masirkar said traffic police personnel have been posted at all the four spaces to ensure that parking is provided for free, and that pamphlets are handed out in the area to spread awareness on the move.
The problem, officials said, is that residents of the area continue to park their vehicles outside their buildings rather than drive to the parking spaces, which are not very far away from the buildings. This is proving to be detrimental to the intentions of the initiative.
“After observing this, we have now started towing away the illegally parked vehicles to the parking spaces. The vehicle owners will still have to pay the requisite fine in order to reclaim their vehicles, but at least it helps get the vehicles off the roads,” Ms. Masirkar said.
She said the initiative has already started showing results, and that the traffic police will continue to raise awareness about it to ensure that more and more people take advantage of the facility.
Curbs on heavy vehicles
In a related initiative to ease the density of vehicular traffic in Lower Parel, the traffic police have also banned heavy and medium goods carriers between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. in the area, when officegoers who work in the numerous commercial complexes nearby leave work.