Parking rules brazenly flouted

Mumbai: Finding vehicles being parked in no-parking zones was hardly a Herculean task for The Asian Age as the practice is ubiquitous in the city. When the paper’s team visited P D’Mello Road, Colaba causeway, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Flora Fountain and the western suburbs, it saw that several motorists opt to park their cars on main junctions and on the side of roads, blocking them and causing congestion.

The menace of unauthorised parking during peak hours inconveniences not only motorists but also local residents and pedestrians.

After ploughing his way through the traffic on a rainy day and struggling to find a way to the other side on the street, Vijay Lokegaonkar, a retired Naval officer, was seen walking on the road near the Bombay high court in Fort with a harried look on his face. When intervened by the team, he complained that unauthorised parking on main streets during peak hours has made it nearly impossible for regular pedestrians to walk freely with nothing but the gentle monsoon showers to occupy their thoughts.

Asked about the menace created by vehicle owners who park on main roads during daytime, Amitesh Kumar, joint commissioner of police (traffic) said, “Parking is not allowed on main roads, and there are several no-parking boards put up on the streets. People should act wisely and start abiding by the parking rules.”

Mr Kumar added, “The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is providing parking spaces in various parts of the city, and people are expected to park their vehicles there, and not on the streets. The vehicles, when found parking in a no-parking area, will be towed away by a van, and the driver will have to cough up a fine to get his car back.

Further south, at Colaba Causeway — one of the go-to places for street shopping in Mumbai — a woman in her early 40s, Farida Eranpurwala, was seen walking on the street instead of the footpath.

Asked why she chose to avoid the footpath, she said, “Hawkers and shop owners have encroached upon the footpath, and to add to the misery, drivers and motorists parked their cars on the main road, making it all the more difficult for us to walk.

Ms Eranpurwala, who stays in a plush building in the vicinity, told The Asian Age, “Being permanent residents of the building for the past 15 years, we still have no fixed parking spot. When we complained to the BMC, we were told to simply park the car wherever we see an empty space, otherwise we would have to cough up a monthly/yearly fee for a parking spot that we should be legally entitled to.”

A resident of the government quarters in Churchgate who did not wish to be named told The Asian Age, “We own two cars, but we are allowed to avail only one parking spot in the building’s basement. Hence we are compelled to park one car on the street right outside our building. Given a choice, we would park both our cars in the building, but due to space crunch, we have to park it there.”