Sirmaur: Five years on, parking facility stuck in ‘red tape’

Nahan, July 15

Residents of Rajgarh in Sirmaur district are waiting for a parking facility that was promised to them five years ago. In 2018, former chief minister Jai Ram Thakur had announced Rs 1 crore for the construction of parking facility in front of the Nagar Panchayat office.

While the process for getting an approval from the department concerned and axing of pine trees took some time, the then Pachhad MLA Suresh Kashyap who is now a Member of Parliament, laid the foundation stone in 2019. Kashyap had hurriedly performed a groundbreaking ceremony ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

However, the project failed to take off during the BJP regime. With more than one-and-a-half years in office, the Congress government, too, had failed to take it forward.

The Nagar Panchayat did spend approximately Rs 6 lakh to develop an alternative parking facility, but this area was situated at a considerable height from the road, rendering it unusable. It seems the proposed parking facility has got entangled in the bureaucratic red tape.

A private parking facility had been opened near the new bus stand recently, but apart from that no other parking area is available in the town. People visiting the market often have to park their vehicles about a kilometre away.

The residents are forced to park their vehicles on the roadside, leading to frequent traffic jams.