Officials say not possible to increase space
Motorists who entered the parking stand on New Bus Stand premises on Friday were in for a great shock, as the Salem City Municipal Corporation had put up a board displaying ‘parking not allowed due to space crunch.’
This in spite of the civic body had recently increased the parking space from 15,700 sq ft to 27,700 sq ft, thus adding another parking space for a total of over 1,100 vehicles at a time.
Motorists, mainly office-goers and workers, who were refused entry to the stand were put to hardship in the morning as they have to look for alternative private parking stands in the area. The civic body collects Rs. 3 as parking fee for a day, while the parking fee at the private stands were Rs. 10 a day. Hence presence of stand near the bus stand and low parking fee brings in more vehicles everyday. But motorist said that over one acre of space available near the stand is lying vacant and could be used for parking. They also demanded that concrete flooring, regulation in parking would enable more parking space as haphazard parking is consuming more space.
However, corporation officials said that there is no proposal for increasing the parking space and only compound wall would be constructed for the extended area. “Tender will soon be floated for the same,” officials added.