Parking has been a major issue both for the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and the traffic police. The city is growing at a rapid pace and so are the vehicles on the road.
Up in vehicle number
In 1970, the total number of vehicles plying on the city roads was about 30,000 and today it has grown to over 7.5 lakh in Visakhapatnam city and another 2.2 lakh in Anakapalle.
With the rise in the number of vehicles, parking has become a major issue and it can be resolved only with the coordination and sustained drive by both the departments.
To begin with, the cellar parking drive was taken up. The GVMC had identified 428 cellars in the city and of which 179 were occupied.
So far GVMC has cleared 46 cellars that were occupied as per the police records.
According to Assistant Commissioner of Police (traffic), Kinjarapu Prabhakar, cellars are meant to accommodate vehicles for parking, but that is not adhered to.
As part of the drive to check wrong parking, the traffic police wing has formed five special teams and from June 3 to June 8. They have booked about 1,500 cases for wrong parking and collected over Rs. 6 lakh as fine.
‘A lot to be done’
A senior police officer from the traffic wing has opined that this is just the beginning, but more needs to be done.
It is learnt that there is a lack of coordination between both departments.
“After the initial thrust, the GVMC has gone slow in clearing the occupied cellars. Moreover, we have asked for ‘No parking signage’ boards to be erected at about 250 spots, it is yet to take shape,” says the officer. Countering the police allegation, an officer from the Planning Department of GVMC says that the police drive lacks the desired ‘sting’.
Proposal pending
As per the ACP, a proposal for multi-level parking is pending since long with the GVMC. “We have identified three main places such as Jagadamba Junction, Dwarakanagar and Maddilapalem for multi-level parking.
The authorities concerned say that it is yet to be finalised. Along with the drive, we have to show the parking place to the people,” says Mr. Prabhakar.
The ACP has further added that special drives yield results.
“Ever since we have taken up the helmet drive about 25 per cent of the two-wheeler drivers have started to wear helmets. Even the two-wheeler fatalities have come down by about 20 per cent because of wearing helmets,” Mr. Prabhakar has told The Hindu .
