Traders on Jawaharlal Nehru Street complain of arbitrary one-side parking system

Traders in Puducherry demand a long-term solution for traffic issues on Nehru Street, criticizing current one-side parking system.

Traders on Jawaharlal Nehru Street are demanding a long term solution for the traffic woes in Puducherry’s commercial hub in the place of ad hoc methods such as the one followed by the traffic police of implementing one-side parking on rotation basis.

In a bid to allow free flow of vehicles along the busiest Nehru Street, the Traffic Police introduced the concept of one-side parking with the provision to shift the allotted parking sides every six months. For the last six months, vehicles were allowed to park on the Northern side.

Two days ago, the traffic police allotted space on the Southern side of the street for vehicle parking. Cars and two-wheelers will be allowed to park only on the Southern side for the next six months, said a police officer. The plan, according to a trader, has not yielded any desired result as on many occasions people park their vehicles on both sides.

“Moreover, the one-side parking occupies lot of space as two-wheelers are kept in layers. The space on the street shrinks substantially because of haphazard parking. Also, people park vehicles on both the sides even now,” he said.

Another trader said such a mode adopted by the police affects their business too. “One side of the stretch will be full of vehicles even blocking the entry of customers for six months. Long hours of parking of vehicles on a busy street such as Nehru Street is actually an abuse of public space. Such parking blocks pedestrian movement,” he said.

The trader said successive governments have been making announcements on having a multi-level parking lot in the place of old jail complex on J.N Street.

“We have seen several announcements on the project. Instead of constructing a multi-level parking lot, they are using the old jail premises as a paid parking lot. That place gets quickly filled by morning itself. The only solution for the traffic mess is to have a multi-level parking complex on J. N Street. A multi-level parking lot will solve the traffic issues in all the streets surrounding J. N Street,” he added.