Parking project in Palampur fails to take off even after 10 yrs
Ravinder Sood
Palampur, August 14
The multi-storey parking project, announced by the government, has been hanging fire for over 10 years.
Funds were allocated, still the work was not started due to the indifferent attitude of the officials concerned. The foundation stone of the project was laid by former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on June 8, 2008.
The state government had announced to construct the parking project under the private-public-partnership (PPP) mode, but in the absence of political and administrative will, the project failed to take off. Though the local Municipal Council had already transferred over 8 kanals in the name of the Urban Development Department eight years ago, the land is lying vacant to date.
The present market value of the land is over Rs 10 crore. A senior official of the Municipal Council said the project was allotted to a Gurgaon-based builder, but he wanted to deviate from the original design, which was neither acceptable to the state government nor the civic body.
To date, neither the state government has cancelled the MoU nor has it allotted the project to a new builder.
There has been a manifold increase in the number of vehicles. Over 3,000 are added to the town every month. With an increase in the number of vehicles in the town, parking space is squeezing, causing inconvenience to the people. At present, there is a provision for the parking of 50 vehicles. On weekends, a large number of tourists visit Palampur, Baijnath and Gopalpur and since there is no notified parking space in these towns, they are fined by the police.
Residents, students, businessmen and tourists have no alternative, but to park vehicles in “so called” no-parking zones. The unruly behaviour of the traffic police has attracted widespread criticism as the police personnel can be seen chasing vehicles and imposing a fine on them without listening to their genuine grievance. On many occasions, challans are also pasted on windscreens of the vehicles, which is also against the directions of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
All heavy vehicles, including buses, trucks, pass through the town, resulting in frequent traffic jams.
Builder wanted to alter design
- The foundation stone of the project was laid by former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal on June 8, 2008.
- The state government had announced to execute the project under the private-public-partnership (PPP) mode, but in the absence of political and administrative will, it failed to take off.
- A senior official of the Municipal Council said the project was allotted to a Gurgaon-based builder, but he wanted to deviate from the original design, which was neither acceptable to the state government nor the civic body.
