Car parking policy set to come up for Howrah & Kolkata

Kolkata: Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) will come up with a car parking policy for Kolkata and Howrah with an aim to minimise roadside parking.

The move by KMDA comes in the wake of directions of the National Green Tribunal to the state government to come up with a planned car parking policy for curbing pollution in the city.

Indiscriminate parking of vehicles is a major problem in most metro cities in the country and experts believe that parking in congested roads is a major contributor in pushing PM 2.5 and PM 10 much higher than permissible limit.

"We have already floated the e tender. The agency that will be roped in will not only frame a proper car parking policy but will do a survey of the areas where parking lots can be set up to free up roadside spaces for car parking," said a KMDA official.

KMDA's plan is not to allow any fuel based car parking in Dharmatala area in sync with Central London

area.

"The plan can be executed by two ways. Either there will be curbs on car parking imposed by the city police or the parking fees will be so exorbitant that people will be dissuaded from parking there," the official said. Moreover, for creating dedicated cycle tracks in the city, car parking on the roadside at Dharmatala needs to be stopped. The 10 -12 routes that has been identified by KMDA include Howrah to Dharmatala, Behala to Dharmatala, Behala to Sector V, Dharmatala to Salt Lake, Sealdah to Dharmatala, Kidderpore to Howrah to name a few.

Since the beginning of the Covid situation from March a lot of movement of cycles have been witnessed with people preferring the two wheeler over public transport where maintaining physical distance is a major challenge.

The Delhi agency that has been roped in by KMDA has been asked to work on routes like these and identify cycle corridors.

"Unplanned bicycle movement on vehicular roads increases the

possibility of road accidents," said an official of Kolkata Police's Traffic department.