The pay-and-park metres on CSIR Road are dysfucntional. There is no parking attendant on the stretch. These facts have little effect on hundreds of motorists who continue to park on this stretch as if nothing has changed. CSIR Road is one of the few stretches where Greater Chennai Corporation has allowed parking. The decision was largely shaped by the fact that Ascendas Tech Park with close to 22,000 employees is located on the road. Besides employees, most visitors to this facility also bring their vehicles. Employees and visitors of other IT parks, located nearby, also make use of this road for parking.According to the original design, this was supposed to be regulated parking. When a contractor has not been appointed for months, where is the question of regulation? Without any agency overseeing parking, the regulars park their vehicles haphazardly.
For a distance of 500 metres, the road is lined on either side with two- and four-wheelers. The parking is so disorderly that only a single-lane of the wide road is available for motorists. On the southern side, which is largely used by employees of the Tech Park, even the pavement is occupied by vehicles.
Hundreds of two-and-four wheelers, starting from Ticel Park till a distance of 500 metres park on the road. Sometimes, the road is reduced to a single lane. The southern side of the pavement in particular is occupied by two-wheelers, many of who are employed at offices in Ascendas Tech Park.
“There is no space inside to park our vehicles, so I have been parking mine on the road for the last two years,” said K. Praveen, an employee of Inautix, who leaves his two-wheeler on the pavement. He said that when there was a contractor, owners of two-wheelers were not charged a parking fee, but those of four-wheelers paid ₹40 a day. According to a senior corporation official, a new contractor agency will be identified soon, and there is also a plan to introduce ‘premium’ car parking rate for vehicles parked on the stretch.
“The vehicles parked on CSIR Road are those coming to the IT Parks on the road and a different rate card can be introduced for them,” said the official.
