Space in Ganj parking for 950 cars. 7,000 parked on roadsides | Lucknow News

Lucknow: As Lucknow Municipal Corporation prepares to impose fines and carry out towing operations across the city, a reality check by TOI has revealed that LMC would need to expand its parking facilities by 8-10 times to accommodate city’s vehicle load.The survey asked trader associations from major marketplaces and they too suggested expansion of parking spaces, saying city’s existing parking capacity was far below the requirement to handle the heavy rush of vehicles during peak hours. The city’s major market parking lots fall far short of demand. In Hazratganj, for example, while market has parking for about 950 cars, over 7,000 vehicles are found parked on roadsides and approach lanes during peak hours. In Aminabad, both main parking lots hold fewer than 500 cars, but over 4,000 vehicles arrive in the evening rush. At Bhootnath market, capacity is of 300 vehicles, but 5,000 are parked along roads in busy hours. Similar scenes are in Mahanagar, Alambagh and Nakhas, where 3,000–4,000 vehicles spill onto main roads, blocking traffic.President of Hazratganj traders association, Vinod Punjabi, said access to parking lots is made more difficult by encroachment by street vendors. Condition of parking facilities is poor in that lifts in multilevel parking are non-functional, no lights and many unclaimed vehicles occupy space for months. Staircases are unhygienic where people urinate spit and litter. “Towing vehicles before improving parking facilities is unfair,” he added. President of Bhootnath Vyapar Mandal, Devendra Gupta, said towing is more a way to collect money than a traffic solution. “Even a 10-minute visit of a customer can result in a tow, driving our business away. The temple-side parking fills early in the morning, the underground lot for 200 cars fills quickly and beyond that, there is no parking along Faizabad Road — yet vehicles are towed ,” he said. Enforcement, he claimed, was selective, with tow truck operators picking vehicles to meet fine targets. He said Bhootnath market saw up to 5,000 vehicles daily but has space only for 300; even at a minimum, 1,500 vehicles need parking at any given time. Without creating capacity, traders argue, rules will generate fines but not solutions. Autos and rickshaws clog main roads and market entrances, with no proper system to manage them.Lucknow Vyapar Mandal president, Amarnath Mishra, said facilities had not been provided and no fixed parking space was allocated in any market. LMC might as well shut markets and collect taxes while continuing to penalise people, he said. In Alambagh and Yahyaganj, there are shops but no basic facilities. Municipal commissioner Gaurav Kumar assured, “All necessary steps will be taken to ensure public does not suffer. Adequate parking facilities will be created and upgraded so that the towing drive could go hand-in-hand with better infrastructure.”