Ludhiana: As MC continues to clear markets, demand rises for parking lots

LUDHIANA: The anti-encroachment drive of the municipal corporation (MC) continued for the third day on Friday and the officials removed the illegal vends from Noorwala Road and Kali Sadak on the day.
However, these repeated anti-encroachment drives in the old parts of the city have once again highlighted lack of parking space in these areas due to congestion and now when the civic officials have involved the traffic police along for challaning against haphazard parking, the residents are raising the demand for designated parking sites.
As of now, parking lots in the area include multistorey parking lot near Mata Rani Chowk, Bhadhaur house parking, books market parking site owned by zila parishad, aprt from a couple other private sites.
The complaints about overcharging at these parking lots are also very common.
The shopkeepers as well as the visitors to these markets claimed that there wholesale markets are located in the area, and people visit it from far-away places.
However, in the absence of proper parking and other arrangements, they have to suffer.
Earlier, vendors had also demanded designated vending sites so they don’t have to encroach the roads in order to earn a living.
A shopkeeper in Kesar Ganj Mandi, Ashok Sharma said, “There is a need for proper parking places in the congested markets too, or authorities should declare the markets vehicle-free. The visitors should be given the option to take e-rickshaws and other public transport as it will help in reducing the traffic in the markets.”
He added challaning wasn’t the only option as it could create panic among the buyers and they could stop visiting the markets.
Tribhuvan Thapar, secretary of Shaheed Sukhdev Thapar Memorial Trust said, “The old markets like Daal Bazaar, Hindi bazaar and other adjoining markets have started losing their customers because they do not have parking spaces.”
He said they had suggested the civic officials to make Daresi Road encroachment-free several times, where adequate parking space could be provided to the visitors.
However, an MC official maintained that the markets did not need any new parking spaces and the existing ones were enough.
He said, “There is enough space in multistorey parking lot and some other options are also available but people do not like to park vehicles in the parking lot, rather they park their vehicles in front of the shop and cause traffic jams.”
He added that the MC was looking to solve the issue of parking in these areas, but till that, they would carry on the drive to keep a check on the irregularities.
The drive is expected to continue in the old city area till further notice.