The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Illegal parking fuelling troubles Law and order

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Saturday, Apr 12, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Illegal parking fuelling troubles Law and order

Many eateries and liquor bars on narrow lanes affect the flow of traffic, writes L. Srikrishna

Photo: M. Karunakaran

Vehicles violating the no-parking rule being towed away from Anna Salai. —

Next time when you go out shopping on your two-wheeler or car, park the vehicles in the designated slots or otherwise the chances of traffic police toeing them away are high.

Following large-scale complaints of haphazard and unauthorised parking, traffic police have formed special “eviction teams” to regulate the vehicles. To start with, the respective jurisdiction officers were directed sometime ago to prepare a comprehensive list of locations, where the no-parking rule was frequently violated.

Based on the reports, police wrecker vans were allotted adequate men who removed/towed the vehicles to the nearest police stations.

A senior officer said that with not many commercial malls providing sufficient parking space, motorists parked their vehicles in front of the buildings or left them on the walkways and adjacent by-lanes hindering the smooth flow of pedestrians and other vehicles.

Many popular shopping malls, restaurants, cinema houses, kalyana mandapams, and liquor bars, particularly those on narrow lanes, posed problems to the flow of traffic directly or indirectly.

Traffic police also found that a large number of cars and cabs were taking up the place in front of residential apartments in many localities.

Besides eating up the space on the roads, many of which were narrow, such parking caused considerable hardship to emergency service vehicles such as ambulance and fire tenders.

Two months ago, when a fire broke out at an automobile spare-parts shop on the busy G. P. Road, off Anna Salai, the fire tenders could not take its water pipes easily inside the building as two-wheelers were parked in front of the building, an officer said.

Despite the “No Parking in front of this gate” boards, many motorists parked their vehicle there. In some cases, wordy altercation ensued between the private security guards and the drivers and on some occasions, ended in brawl. As and when the traffic control room received calls from public about unauthorised parking, police evicted them, he added.

During nights, the scenario was still worse. Private tourist and taxi operators used the sideroads to park their vehicles in a row thus causing problems to free movement of residents.

There are 19 wreckers operated by the police in and around the city’s various busy commercial zones, a traffic officer at Spencer Plaza junction said.

The police collected around Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000 as fines daily from violators, whose vehicles were evicted from the no parking zones. With strength of 39 traffic inspectors located at different traffic intersections across the city, the wreckers begin operations from as early as 8 a.m. Apart from towing, vehicles which suffered mechanical/electrical problems in the middle of the roads were also removed, he added.

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