Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Autorickshaws, call taxis turn parking lots into their stands

K. V. Prasad

The result: people park their vehicles at the Collectorate or railway junction

OFF BOUNDS: Call taxis parked on State Bank Road deny space for other vehicles. - Photo: M. Periasamy

COIMBATORE: Even as the city looks for more parking lots to accommodate its growing vehicle population, poor regulation of autorickshaws and call taxis leads to a struggle for space in the available ones.

These vehicles take up substantial portions of the lots and deny space for other vehicles. People who come in their own vehicles to shopping areas have very limited options.

Take the case of Cross Cut Road: at least 10 ft to 15 ft of every block of parking space is taken away by autorickshaws.

Five to six of these vehicles form a stand mostly at the corners (at curves into bylanes that link Cross Cut Road with 100 Feet Road). Even when they are not around, the shopkeepers stand guard for their "exclusive lot".

The shopkeepers ask the public not to park their vehicles at this spot saying it is an autorickshaw stand.

Tactics

If a motorist ignores this and parks his vehicle, he is in trouble. After shopping, he will find an autorickshaw parked so closely to his vehicle that its doors cannot be opened. This is the form of intimidation resorted to by autorickshaw drivers.

Actually, it warns of a close shave for a car or a van that dares to enter the fiefdom of the autorickshaw union. Not only the corners, but the initial few metres of every bylane are also occupied by autorickshaws. Besides, autorickshaws that are not members of these stands are parked in other parts of the lots.

As if the problems caused by these three-wheelers are not enough, the call taxis add their bit to heighten the agony of the public.

Dreading autorickshaw drivers, they too eat up parking space meant for the public. Call taxi drivers argue that they are not canvassing passengers but actually waiting for those who have hired the vehicles to return from shopping.

Worst affected

The worst affected area is the State Bank Road. Beginning with the parking lot in front of the Central Telegraph Office, the entire stretch up to the railway junction is mostly a call taxi stand.

Visitors to hotels and other commercial establishments on the road have trouble finding parking space.

Call taxi drivers point out that since autorickshaw drivers do not allow them to park the taxis near the junction, they are forced to use the lots in front of other buildings.

As a result, people park their vehicles at the Collectorate and cause congestion there or they park at the railway junction by paying a fee of Rs. 5.

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