The freedom to drive on the city’s roads entails another freedom; to park by the kerbs. Granted that the second freedom cannot be absolute and granted that parking is regulated in cities the world over, it is also true that there needs to be a balance between the parking space available in a city and the number of vehicles plying its roads.
Take the Vellayambalam-Sasthamangalam road in the capital city. What with residential and commercial establishment embellishing both sides of this arterial road, there is very little space for parking. The fact that the Indira Bhavan is located at this road only adds to the crush of vehicles jostling to park. Very few, if any, of the shops located on this road offer underground parking space. Of and on the traffic police swoop down with stickers demanding fines from hapless motorists.
In many cities kerbside parking is chargeable. In fact such a parking facility exists at the Gandhi Park and at the Putharikkandom grounds. Why cannot such facilities be extended to select locations in the city. Motorists would surely not grudge a small fee for parking by the side of congested roads, would they?
There are times when the most unfortunate of incidents can trigger something positive.
The death of a poor private security guard did that for pedestrians in East Fort last week. Authorities, who had been hesitant to remove encroachers and encroachments that took over the footpaths of East Fort, forcing pedestrians to walk on the busy road, finally got moving and have begun wiping the area clean.
However, the removal of encroachers is not going to solve all that plagued the East Fort area. The region, according to District Collector Biju Prabhakar, has seven roads coming into it, but not a single exclusive exit route.
This has prompted him to think of a new exit route, which is expected to be discussed during a meeting on Tuesday.
Given the history of how things have moved for East Fort, how long will the wait for a new road in one of the city’s busiest spots be?
