Illegal car parks and vendors: What’s choking service lanes in Gr Noida West

Noida: Unregulated parking on service lanes, shops on both sides, and wrong-side driving at the U-turns at their ends have become a bane for commuters in Greater Noida West. It leads to heavy traffic jams on the service lanes in areas like the Gaur crossing, especially in the evening when traffic becomes two-way and school buses take the service lanes to drop off children. A lack of traffic police deployment only complicates the situation.
Residents said that with no designated parking space, people coming to banks, markets, and offices leave their vehicles on the service lanes, leading to congestion. Shubham Gaur, a resident of Greater Noida visiting a bank near the Palm Olympia society on Tuesday, said, “The service lanes remain choked with vehicles. Due to irregular parking, the school buses find it tough to move on the service lanes. Even walking becomes tough.”
Ashutosh Singh, the traffic inspector of Greater Noida, said, “For the sake of the safety of the children, the buses come inside the service lanes to drop them near the residential campuses, but there is random parking on the roadsides, which impedes traffic movement. We will make parking arrangements to resolve this issue.”
Meanwhile, shops and people visiting the shops eat up the available space on these service lanes. Amit Singh, a resident of Greater Noida West, said, “Since most residential apartments have gates opening into the service lanes, the service lanes should be kept free from encroachments and unchecked parking. The police are at the main crossings, while traffic jams keep these service lanes blocked.”
More people visit shops on the roadsides during the evening when the traffic pressure is high. “Street shopping is convenient for most residents, but the traffic jams are a problem. When people come to shop here in the evening, their vehicles choke the service lanes,” said Suchita, who came shopping in a market near Gaur city on Tuesday evening.
According to the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) officials, the work to regulate vendors in Greater Noida West is in the pipeline. Salil Yadav, officiating general manager at GNIDA, said, “The work to regulate the placement of vendors is in the process and will get implemented next year. That will help ease traffic movement.”