PANJIM: While Campal residents are breathing a sigh of relief, businessmen in the area are anxious at North Goa Collector Nila Mohanan’s recent notice to make the roads in the area pay parking within 15 days.
Though Campal’s heritage area may be home to age-old Portuguese-styled houses, it is also a prime location for business as well as cultural events, leading to parking around the houses.
Campal Residents’ Association had prepared a pay parking plan for the Campal Heritage Precinct which was submitted to the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) and subsequently passed at a corporation meeting.
CCP in turn submitted this proposal to the North Goa District Collector who notified Campal Heritage Precinct as pay parking area. The plan, as described by the association, would look to allowing only residents to park free while others would have to pay to park their vehicles.
The Campal residential area plays host to visitors to Kala Academy, Campal Trade Centre, Fishermen’s Wharf, Francisco Luis Gomes Garden, Hotel Campal, etc to park their vehicles. However implementation of pay parking will force people to shell out money to park their vehicles.
An employee from reputed company at Campal Trade Centre said, “I park my car everyday alongside the road at Campal residence area. It’s not just me, but even my colleagues do it. Enforcing pay parking in that area is just a money-making tactic by the government. I don’t see any need to implement pay parking in that area.”
Viraj Gomes, Managing Partner of Hotel Campal – which is located in the centre of Campal’s heritage area – said that pay parking will increase the number of cars in the area. “If pay parking is implemented people will not mind paying Rs 10 or 20 to park throughout the day. Actually parking will increase in this area as people will feel that their vehicles will be under watch and so will be safe,” he said.
However, local residents welcomed the decision. Like others from the area, Patricia Pinto and her husband have had to face vehicles parked in front of their home. “There are so many people who visit the building and because they don’t have any dedicated space for parking, they tend to park in front of our house,” she said.
Dr Lili Sequeira e Sukhija says that pay parking will be a better alternative than the current situation. “I get patients coming to my home but because of the number of cars parked in the area my patients have to walk a long distance, which I find unreasonable,” she added.
The project will be outsourced to a party on contract. Tender for the project has been floated and CCP is waiting for bids from interested parties. CCP has also given a positive nod on implementation of pay parking.
