Facility available for parking of vehicles on T. Nagar in Chennai, but who cares?
Posted on: 31/Jan/2022 9:17:48 AM
At this time in 2021, a multi-level parking facility was inaugurated in one of the busy localities in Chennai that is T. Nagar. The question now is that did this parking facility provide a suitable solution for the parking of vehicles here?
Even now, we could witness haphazard parking of vehicles in T. Nagar despite the parking facility there and the pedestrians have been finding it difficult to move freely. It is known that people come to T. Nagar for purchasing as there are lots of shops available here. It must be noted that people still park their vehicles along the kerb and two wheelers are parked on the pedestrian plaza etc. The space that is available for walking is being occupied by 3 rows of scooters and motorbikes etc.
It was mentioned by Mr. Prakash Galada, owner of Galada Agencies in T. Nagar that multi level car parking charges Rs 20 per hour for the cars and Rs 5 per hour for two wheelers. He added that there was no drive to create awareness among people regarding the parking lots. He then spoke about how the people were unaware that their vehicles would be safer at parking lots than being on the roads. It is learnt that every day 20% of the visitors here are new and it goes up to 50% on Saturdays and Sundays. Point to be noted is that the shop owners, GCC officials and the multi-level car parking contractor had discussions regarding reduction in the cost for parking for the shop assistants.
It was later brought to light by a resident belonging to Velachery (who visits his relatives in T. Nagar) that walking on the pedestrian plaza was superb as it was a long unbroken stretch. He added that in Usman Road this was not possible as the pedestrians had to get off the footpath. The lanes that are adjacent to the pedestrian plaza have become difficult to navigate now and this is due to the on-street parking of the vehicles. Sivaprakasam Street and Masilamani Street here have hawker menace and a sign board mentioning no hawker zone was removed.
