Drive against wrong parking continues in Srinagar

Traffic Police towing a car in Srinagar city. —Excelsior/Shakeel Rehman
Traffic Police towing a car in Srinagar city. —Excelsior/Shakeel Rehman

Excelsior Correspondent

Srinagar, Dec 25: After the directions from the High Court, City Traffic Police today acted tough on violators as a part of its continuous drive against wrong parking in the City Centre Lal Chowk.
Scores of wrongly parked vehicles were challaned on spot and were towed away to pave the way for the smooth and hassle free movement of the traffic on the congested roads in Srinagar.
The drive was supervised by the SP Traffic, S Dechen, who appealed to the common masses as well as the owners of the business establishments in Lal Chowk to adhere to the rules and regulations, and cooperate in decongesting the roads in City Centre.
He said that for last 10 years, the number of vehicles in Srinagar have increased, coupled with the roadside parking, there used to be frequent traffic jams reported in Srinagar and that such a measure was inevitable.
“In order to tackle with the traffic situation, we have acted on the directions of the High Court and are not allowing vehicles to be parked on roadside,” he said.
The roadside parking spaces, which were notified by the Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) and Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), have been de-notified by the authorities. “All the parking spaces around near the roads have been de-notified and the vehicles parked in such spaces will be now considered as illegal” he said.
He appealed all the departments-private as well as the Government-to guide people who visit them to use the parking spaces judiciously without impeding the flow of traffic. “There are several complexes along M A Road which have got their own parking spaces with them, but those spaces have been remaining under-utilized; we are appealing them to put those spaces in use,” he said.
The Traffic Department has decided to carry on with the drive against the violators till the menace of wrong parking does not stop completely in Srinagar city.