Driving to Rajnagar District Centre? Think where to park your car

GHAZIABAD: The Rajnagar District Centre (RDC) is the city’s nerve centre that houses food chains, prominent restaurants, showrooms, banks, retail outlets and other facilities. Spread across an area of 20 acres, the RDC has over the years become notorious for traffic jams, mostly because of haphazard parking.
Repeated complaints to authorities led to a few half-hearted measures, but they failed to improve the situation. “When the RDC was opened in 2014, it was an instant hit among residents. Many of them visited the shopping hub in the evening and people could be seen taking stroll. But today, such a situation is unimaginable,” said Praveen Batra, a shopper. “Every nook and corner is occupied with vehicles. They spill on to the main roads and it makes virtually impossible for anyone to walk through,” he added.
Vimal Sharma, another shopper, blamed lack of foresight of the development agency and poor implementation of traffic regulations for the parking mess. “In the past decade and a half, RDC has grown from a few shops to hundreds of them. Malls have also started coming up. The place draws huge crowds and vehicles,” Sharma said. “The authorities should have taken steps to accommodate more vehicles. At the same time, the traffic police should crack down on illegal parking. For several years, parking has been unregulated here,” he added.
Pramod Gupta, who owned a shop in RDC, had to shift his outlet because he was losing business due to the parking mess. “I have had to shift operations to the city area because the consumer footfall has largely come down. This is largely because customers are finding it tough to reach the main market. They don’t know where to park their vehicles,” Gupta said.
Sanjev Jangid, who visits RDC regularly, echoed the others on the traffic problems. “The parking mafia has come to rule the roads. If you give them money, they will ensure you get to park your vehicle even in the middle of the road. Long snarls make this place a shoppers’ nightmare,” he said.
The Ghaziabad Development Authority’s plan to build an underground and multilevel parking found few takers. “We had planned to open a multilevel parking at RDC on the PPP mode. But no agency showed any interest in developing the project,” said VN Singh, chief engineer at the GDA. “Our agency cannot spend Rs 80 crore (required to build the parking lot) from its kitty. So, the project has been scrapped for now,” Singh added.
Singh, however, blamed the transport department for the parking problems at the shopping centre. Told about it, an official in the transport department said traffic policemen are posted in the area during rush hours. “At various cross-sections, traffic cops are stationed during rush hours. But it is difficult to keep policemen posted in the area through the day,” the official said.
If the authorities don’t prepare a parking plan, the problem of snarls is here to stay at the RDC.