The ‘City of Destiny’ is said to be the most happening city in Andhra Pradesh post-bifurcation. It is one among the top smart cities and has been ranked third among the cleanest cities. But the major problem envisaged both by the police and the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) is the increase in the number of vehicles, and providing parking space.
The vehicular growth has been phenomenal. From about just 3,000 vehicles (including all types of vehicles) in 1966, it has crossed the 11-lakh mark. As per a conservative estimate of the traffic police, on an average about 60,000 vehicles are added on the roads a year, and the available parking space for the total number of vehicles is barely close to 30%.
“If this issue is not addressed on a war-footing, parking is going to be a major issue in the coming days,” said ACP (Traffic) Kinjarapu Prabhakar.
Most of cellar of the shopping complexes have parking space, and if there is space, it is occupied by the employees and owners of the shops. According to the rule, it is duty of the shop owners to provide parking for customers. And in some of cellars, the ramps are not provided, observed Mr. Prabhakar.
Both the GVMC and the police have identified certain areas such as Jagadamba, Poorna Market, Dabagardens, Dwarakanagar, Rama Talkies and Asilmetta, as hot spots that require immediate attention.
Another major problem is inadequate manpower and equipment in the traffic police department. From 26 sq km in 1966, the area of the police commissionerate has gone up to 540 sq km, and there are only about 350 traffic policemen, including officers. Coming to towing vehicles, there are only two that are shared between the 20-odd traffic police stations, while at the same time Hyderabad police has got one towing vehicle for each police station.
Smart city- smart parking
Taking a leaf from the smart city concept, the GVMC plans to address the issue by constructing multi-level parking bays.
“To address the parking issue, we have plans for on-street parking and multi-level parking. We are in the process of identifying the areas where these multi-level parking bays can come up, in association with the police department,” said the Commissioner of GVMC M. Hari Narayanan.
According to him, the authorities had identified one area near Jagadamba and have already issued a tender. This is going to be a pilot project and basing on its success the civic body could go for more numbers with the required modifications, he said. “It is going to be at least a four-floor parking lot and will be fully mechanised and can accommodate at least 100 cars.”
Apart from Jagadamba area, the other areas being considered are Central Park, Diamond Park and Beach Road near the Kursura Museum.
On roadside parking, Mr. Hari Narayanan said that plans are afoot to work on on-street parking by adjusting the margins.
Smart street is another concept that would address the on-street parking issue to a certain extent, said ACP Prabhakar. The smart street will have features such cycling track, pedestrian zone and parking bays and the smart street will cover from Kurupam Towers to Turner Choultry, after passing through Three Town police station, CR Reddy Marg and Jagadamba, he said. He said a multi-level parking was the need of the hour on the Beach Road.
“The vehicular traffic on the Beach Road touches 5,000 on a regular basis and we have two to three major tourist attractions including Kursura Museum and the newly opened TU 142 Museum. We are negotiating with Andhra University to provide some land so that GVMC can build a multi-level parking that will address the parking needs of both the museums and the AU convention centre also,” he said.
It is also learnt that plans are on to promote new beaches such as Sagar Nagar and Jodugullapalem, to ease the rush at RK Beach.
