Unauthorised parking on streets leave residents helpless in Chennai

Residents of Chennai dread festival season due to lack of parking space; 45 lakh of 75 lakh vehicles on road are two-wheelers; city needs 2 lakh parking lots, currently only 20,000 available; Corporation has identified 5,000 slots; Metro rail work has hindered progress; Corporation earns Rs. 2.25 lakh/day from parking charges.

The festival season may be around the corner but people living in residential areas abutting commercial hubs are not excited. Their life turns into a nightmare everytime shoppers descend on them, often leaving them struggling to enter their own home. Lack of parking space is a perennial issue for the residents but the situation turns worse during the festival season.

From mid-September till Deepavali, residents in the bylanes of T. Nagar battle their way to walk, let alone use their vehicles for commute.

V.S. Jayaraman, a resident of Motilal Street of South Usman Road said, “There are people who park inside our apartment and argue with us when we ask them to take their vehicle out,” he said. Although large shops on Usman Road have made arrangements for parking, it is hardly enough given the crowd that throngs them.

Several streets in T. Nagar have tiny plots earmarked as parking lots. Most of them overflow daily. The result is people park wherever they find space. This leads to an altercation with the residents of the locality and an unpleasant exchange of words. “We are law-abiding citizens and don’t want to protest by blocking the road. Our appeals to the police and civic authorities have not helped much,” he said.

On Pinjala Subramanian Street, which has been declared one-way for vehicular traffic, a garment shop has taken over the entire stretch for parking. It has provided underground parking, unlike other shops of its ilk. Ever since the shop sprang up, the street has metamorphosed into a two-way street, adding to the chaos. Meanwhile, the multilevel car parking on the pedestrian plaza on Theagaraya Road finds very few takers while the roads continue to get clogged. People have converted even the pedestrian plaza into a parking lot, edging out pedestrians.

On Anna Nagar 7th Avenue, residents complain of unauthorised parking. “Sometimes, people leave their cars unattended for several days. I park my two-wheeler in a way that will prevent misuse of the space,” said an affected resident. Although the residents tried to take up the issue with the civic and police authorities, they found no relief. On 18th Street, three shops, including a grocery store, have led to congestion owing to haphazard parking, said P. Murali Krishnan, who lives a couple of streets away.

P. Vadivel, a resident of Anna Nagar West, said if the parking of vans throughout the day on the SBOA West Gate Road and School Road made it difficult to walk on the pavement, then on East Main Road, School Road and Park Road, shops had extended the space on pavements to accommodate customers’ vehicles.