The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Haphazard parking adds to traffic woes

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Saturday, Oct 18, 2008
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Haphazard parking adds to traffic woes

Staff Reporter

Police to tow away vehicles obstructing traffic

The four recovery vans of the traffic police are not used effectively
Kochi does not have a mobile squads to book traffic rule violators

KOCHI: The city is increasingly witnessing haphazard vehicle parking and the major culprits are the well-heeled car users who more often than not flaunt their swanky cars. Some among them wantonly park anywhere they like. No amount of honking would help. They would either be merrily chatting on the cell phones or would simply have abandoned the cars and gone shopping. Their drivers are even more audacious. Seldom do they realise that they occupy around half the width of the already-narrow roads, stifling the movement of traffic. The four-lane MG Road has in effect become a two-lane one because of unchecked parking. Similar is the case with SA Road and Banerjee Road.

Assistant Commissioner of City Traffic Police, K.B. Venugopal, said that most of them drop names and boast of VIP contacts if the police book them or try to tow away their cars for obstructing the free movement of traffic. They even park their vehicles at junctions and U-turns, apart from blocking vehicles that take free-left turns.

That such people have little road ethics goes unsaid. They are further emboldened by the inability of the Corporation of Cochin and the PWD to mark parking and bus bays and to restrict parking on roads. In extreme cases like on the Palarivattom-Kakkanad Road, the PWD has painted parking bays that are wider (often around five metres wide) than the carriageway. This often results in cars and goods-delivery vans being parked parallel to each other on one side, eating into the road’s width. The two agencies have also not segregated parking lots for two and four-wheelers, resulting in a free-for-all situation.

Despite such an alarming situation, the four recovery vans of the traffic police are not used effectively. Even worse, the police have run out of stickers to be pasted on haphazardly-parked vehicles. Kochi might be among the few cities without mobile squads to book traffic-rule violators. Policemen on duty often turn a blind eye to traffic hold ups caused by carelessly-parked vehicles.

“We will soon restart the drive to tow away vehicles that obstruct traffic. The vans can easily remove a vehicle in 15 minutes’ time,” Mr Venugopal said.

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