Regular traffic jams near Hall Gate in Amritsar, a nuisance

Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, December 29

The walled city has been facing heavy traffic congestions in the absence of proper parking space. Regular traffic jams also disrupt normal life and businesses of residents.

The only major parking for visitors to the Golden Temple is the Saragarhi parking lot. It is a five-storey parking lot, which remains overcrowded at all times. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee has provided a few small parking lots for two-wheelers near the Golden Temple and a major parking lot is near Gurdwara Shaheedan Sahib. Giving a large number of devotees visiting shrines in the city on a daily basis, these facilities seem to be inadequate. They have no option but to park on the roadside.

The authorities concerned have failed to provide spacious and more parking lots, leading to congestion or parking problems in most markets. Residents are perturbed as it takes quite a while to find a place for parking their vehicles.

The 447-year-old city has narrow lanes in its interior markets. Some major commercial centres such as Hall Bazaar, Katra Jaimal Singh, Telephone Exchange, Karmo Deohri, Guru Bazaar Shastari Market, Raja Market, Katra Ahluwalia, Majith Mandi, Loon Mandi, Daal Mandi, etc, have only small parking lots at Kairon Market, Kesri Bagh and Telephone Exchange. Thousands of traders from Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the region visit these areas daily. Over 1 lakh tourists and devotees visit the city daily.

There are more than 300 hotels, which do not have a parking lot inside the walled city. As per the building bylaws, the hotels cannot operate without in-built parking spaces, but most hotels have no parking space and they are still open.

The authorities had proposed a 32-crore multi-level automated car parking to be built at the Kairon Market to address the parking issue in interior areas of the city under the Smart City project. Even five years after the announcement, there is no development or progress on the ground. The MC authorities had proposed to use the old Sabji Mandi as the parking lot, but the MC failed to implement the plan. There will be no relief for residents for many years to come as even if the construction work of parking lot starts, it will take several years to complete.

Traffic experts claim that authorities have to make the vehicle free zones in the walled city and construct a major multilevel parking lot outside Hall Gate to tackle the issue. Sandip Rishi, CEO, Smart City-cum-MC Commissioner, stated that authorities were well aware of the traffic issue and working on several proposals to address the problem.