#THtalksBengaluru | Traffic police to soon replace odd-and-even day parking norm with left side parking rule

Dr. M.A. Saleem spoke at #THTalksBengaluru, an online live chat with The Hindu and its readers on December 24

Bengaluru Traffic Police will relook at odd and even day parking on either side of the streets in the city and convert all of them to left side parking every day, said Dr. M. A. Saleem, Special Commissioner (Traffic), Bengaluru.

He was speaking at the #THtalksBengaluru, an online live chat with The Hindu and its readers on Saturday, December 24, where he took several questions from the readers on a range of issues from parking woes, law enforcement, public transport and bad roads. 

“Odd and even day parking on either side of the street is a legacy issue. In most places we have removed it, but it still continues to be there on certain roads. Ideally, we should switch to parking on only the left side of the road everyday. We will take measures to remove odd and even day parking soon,” he said. 

Dr. Saleem said the city’s traffic mess was more a parking problem than one of traffic flow and batted for comprehensive parking policy, drafted by Directorate of Urban Land Transport (DULT) and being implemented by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). “When implemented, even the congested old pete area will have a reasonably better traffic flow,” he said.

Responding to a question on commercial buildings violating norms and giving up parking space in basements to commercial establishments, he said though it did not come under their jurisdiction, traffic police were open to taking up surveys to identify such violations and assist the civic body in rectifying them, like before. 

Dr. Saleem added that there was a need for more Multi Level Car Parking (MLCP) complexes in the Central Business District (CBD) area and appealed to the BBMP to build more of them. “The BMTC has done a wonderful job providing for MLCPs in their Traffic Transit Management Centres (TTMCs) across the city. We need more such MLCPs in the CBD area,” he said. 

Dr. Saleem also clarified that there were no plans to bring back towing of wrongly parked vehicles in the city. “There are adequate means to handle wrong parking without towing. For instance, we have begun registering regular FIRs under Section 283 of IPC for footpath parking and driving. Under this case, the vehicles will be seized and the owner has to take it back only from the court. We have booked at least 3,000 cases over the past couple of months and expect this to create deterrence and discipline soon,” he said.