Whenever a city resident plans a visit to sector 17 market, what stops him/her in the tracks is parking. The mere thought of navigating through a maze of vehicles, with no one to help or guide in all the 22 parking lots in sector 17 is reason enough for a person to change his mind, and head for some mall instead.

Though the municipal corporation is a stone’s throw away from this pedestrian’s paradise, it has failed to come up with any concrete solution to sort out the parking chaos. The Rs 50-crore multilevel parking that it inaugurated last year has turned out to be a white elephant with very few takers. With all the parking lots in the sector unmanned at present, chaotic scenes are commonplace. ... Inaugurated with much fanfare in May last year, the MC’s 50-crore multilevel parking project in sector 17 has failed miserably. There were no takers for the lot during its first auction and the civic body failed to give the contract at a reserve price of 9 lakh for just two months. The MC assumed its management on August 9 last year after a three-month contract with a Gurgaon-based company.With only around 200 vehicles being parked here daily against its capacity of 900, the civic body has suffered a loss of nearly 50 lakh in these months. Even after running the operation on its own, the MC has failed to convince people to use this parking lot.

FIGURES THAT MATTER

  • Number of parking lots in sector 17 – 22
  • Number of vehicles in sector daily – 5,500 four-wheelers and 4,600 two-wheelers
  • Number of taxi stands in sector 17- 6 (need to be shifted so that this space can be utilised to accommodate at least 40 cars each)

Possible solutions

  • Single-level basement parkings can be built on both sides of Neelam Cinema and near the KC theatre to accommodate 1,500 more cars. Single-level parkings are more user-friendly, especially for the elderly and women.
  • Fully automatic model is recommended for more than one-storeyed underground parking.
  • The existing above-ground and basement parkings need to be better managed and redesigned.
  • Taxi stands can be shifted to sites with comparatively less visitors.
  • The extra cars of the seven-storeyed buildings on periphery of Sector 17 can be directed to bepark their back side wherever applicable.
  • Levy a charge of Rs 10 per hour for parking four-wheelers at Sahib Singh and Empire Store parking lots near the showrooms; charge Rs 5 per hour at multi-level parking lots around 500m from the showrooms
  • Make the multi-level parking free for three months to ensure that residents understand its benefits.