TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: There is one thing that is constantly regular in the world of parking in Panjim. Irregularity! That is why it should come as no surprise. The implementation of much talked about Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations, 2010- that speaks about stringent action against group housing units and multi-storied buildings for misusing parking space for commercial and other purposes has been a complete failure.
The process for formulating uniform set of rules was initiated in 2001. These rules had provisions related to building and construction activity scattered in various other Acts. These include the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974, Goa Municipal Act, 1968 (bylaws), Goa Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, City of Panaji Corporation Act, 2002, and various regulations of the planning and development authority (PDA). However, the effectiveness of the regulations failed due to negligence of government authorities who played blind eye towards the violations.
Nearly 8000 vehicles enter Capital city every day and on an average a car spends only 10 per cent of its life in motion and the remaining 90 per cent of the time it is parked either off-street or on-street.
With the increasing trend in the growth of private vehicles, it is imperative that parking be seen as an important factor for making an efficient transportation system within our cities. Parking falls into two categories – Off-street parking and On-street parking. Off-street parking facilities which are basically associated with parking spaces in the commercial and other housing complexes remains on draft construction plan, the paper that gets submitted before the authorities. On ground, these parking facilities are by and large converted into commercial establishments or remained shut.
Though, different developmental projects have to follow different parking norms as prescribed in the development plan, the rules are seen thrown to the wind. As a result, city witnesses haphazard parking and chaotic situation. It is also to be noted that the number of vehicles keeps increasing every year.
The present parking space in the city are regulated as per clause 10 of the Regulations which is perhaps based on the population figures of 2001 census which was 99,677 for Panjim and Taleigao areas. However, as per census 2011, the population of Panjim and Taleigao went upto 1,14,405 and increase of nearly 15 percent. Apart from this there is every increase floating population.
As per the clause, five and four starred hotels have one parking space for two rooms while other small hotels provide one space for four rooms. While the retail business markets like offices, buildings, hospitals are marked area of 50 sq mtrs for parking. This clearly shows that the parking space provided as per the Regulations are far below the requirement.
Taking a serious note of lack of parking facility, the civic body- Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) through its communication to State government in June 2013 and January 2014 sought urgent attention towards the need to amend the Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations, 2010, as regards the off-street parking space for vehicles in the city.
“Government is aware that the city is facing acute problems of parking of the vehicles in all the major cities of Goa on account of the tremendous increase in the vehicles visiting the cities. On account of this problem, it is high time now that the government take some measures to minimize the problems of parking in the capital city keeping in tune the developments taken place,” CCP Mayor Surendra Furtado has said in his letters.
The Corporation has currently stopped granting licences and permissions to new commercial-cum residential projects in its jurisdiction thus halting the developmental projects. It however approved pending 13 projects prior to August 2013.
