Motorists in the city have reason to celebrate as Chennai Corporation will soon set up 361 parking lots on roads. The Traffic Police has handed over the list of such spots to the civic body after identifying congested stretches in 11 zones of the city. Corporation Commissioner D. Karthikeyan on Wednesday said he has asked the zonal officials to use the list of 361 such spots to increase the number of parking lots in their zones.
There are already 145 parking lots managed by TEXCO (Tamilnadu Ex-Servicemen’s Corporation Limited) in Chennai Corporation limits.
The total number of parking lots in the city will cross 500 after the Chennai Corporation completes the demarcation work on the parking lots. Royapuram, which current has 42 lots will get 78 more and remain the zone with the largest number of parking lots in the city. Roads such as Wallajah Road, Ramanathan Salai, Harris Road, Rajaji Salai, EVK Sampath Salai and Vepery High Road will have additional parking lots. Anna Nagar will have as many as 72 new parking lots. Pulla Avenue, Second Avenue and Konnur High Road will be some of the stretches that will get the facilities.
Tondiarpet, Thiru-Vi-Ka Nagar, Ambattur, Teynampet, Kodambakkam, Valasaravakkam, Alandur, Adyar and Perungudi will also get new parking lots.
Rise in obstructions
The civic body had joined hands with the Traffic Police a few months ago to find a solution to the increasing number of obstructions on roads caused by haphazard parking. A coordination committee on traffic obstructions, which has been meeting on the second Friday of every month, had discussed such emerging issues concerning traffic congestion in all the 15 zones.
With major infrastructure projects such as Metro Rail and flood mitigation project under way, many roads have been experiencing traffic bottlenecks.
Some corporation parking lots such as those on General Patters Road and Anna Salai near Anna Statue have already been closed down.
The need for traffic diversions on account of the infrastructure works has made many new stretches crucial for parking purposes.
