‘Is parking vehicles under flyovers risky ’

The Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the state government to check the possible threats created by vehicles that are parked under flyover bridges of Mumbai.

Division bench of justice V.M. Kanade and Justice Swapana Joshi was hearing a PIL filed by activist Prashant Polekar who wanted direction from the court to various public authorities to make parking lots available for the vehicles in the city of Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai.

The petitioner’s lawyer, Uday Warunjikar, stated that everyday lakhs of vehicles enter the city, and citizens of Mumbai have their own vehicles. Because of the lack of space in the city, people park their vehicles anywhere on the road. Parking lots that have been made available by the BMC are few and, therefore, we can use space below the flyover of city, he said. There are 27 flyovers in the city and there is enough place for vehicles beneath them, Mr Warunjikar contended.

BMC lawyer Trupti Puranik told the court that another bench of the high court had upheld the state’s 2009 Government Resolution that said vehicles should not be parked below flyovers for security reasons. “Risk is everywhere, now you have to ascertain threat perception. There was threat perception, but does it still exist ” said the court.

“Parking is a serious problem in the Mumbai city; you can see double parking on the roads because people don’t find place to park their vehicles. We heard that thousands of vehicles get registered everyday in the city of Mumbai. Just think situation after five years,” said Justice Kanade.

The court directed the state to file an affidavit and kept the matter for hearing on September 27.