Finding a parking spot is turning out to be a nightmare in the State capital. And with the number of vehicles increasing almost exponentially, things are just getting worse. The city fathers have major plans for Panjim. However, parking and public transport seem to have been left out of these plans. This, either by design or mere neglect, is creating chaos on the city roads.
The only step that the Corporation of the City of Panjim (CCP) has taken is to seek to charge fees for parking on select city roads. Even this, though it got the CCP’s nod in principle in December last with a provision to review it after a month, has not happened.
Now, five months and a new mayor later, the CCP councilors have decided to discuss it at the next meeting. “There are a few amendments that we want to bring in. We will discuss that and then send it to the collector for notification,” Panjim mayor Shubam Chodankar told Herald. This present council has practically no opposition as the BJP backed panel and the Atanasio Monserrate backed panel are on the same plane, which should make it easier to put the plan in operation.
The plan to decongest and regulate traffic in other parts of the city included proposals to make certain streets one way, demarcating pedestrian only areas, and no parking zones.
The councillors had resolved that CCP will begin pay parking initially in four areas – pedestrian walk around and opposite National Theatre, pay parking near Vishal Mega Mart and Junta House, pay parking around the Municipal Market and Inox as well as in front of Café Coffee Day. The CCP was also considering designating the area around 31st January road as no parking zone.
“We had got the pay parking plan cleared in principle in December. Immediately after that the commissioner should have acted on it. The code of conduct would not have applied as it was already cleared. The collector had already cleared it,” former Mayor Surendra Furtado said.
Not surprisingly former mayors from across the board – Yatin Parikh from the then ruling panel backed by former deputy mayor Rudresh Chodankar and former mayors from the opposition panel Vaidehi Naik and Tony Rodrigues – had objected to the plan and highlighted various hurdles in its implementation. They insisted that the plan be taken up on a trial basis and in a phased manner.
After hearing the objections and discussions, mostly repeated arguments, the councillors rather grudgingly agreed to the first phase of implementation in certain areas for a trial period.
“Pay parking in some areas is okay. But the problem now is all parking in the city has been made into a taxi stand. Almost every parking spot has been blocked by tourist taxis and their bikes,” says Soter de Souza, resident of Porvorim who works in Panjim. “You can keep pay parking in some areas. I don’t know why the government is delaying. I don’t know what the game is. I don’t know what are the vested interests in this delay,” he added.
He, however, makes a point that since the government charges road tax it should provide parking to its citizens.
The pay parking, however, won’t happen so soon. “Finalisation of areas (for pay parking) is still on. It will take some time. I could not go forward because of the code of conduct (Panjim byelection). I will start work on it now,” CCP commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues had said in February.
