A line of shots dot either sides of the road as swarms of people and vehicles inch their way through the streets of T Nagar, one of Chennai’s oldest and most popular shopping destinations. Over the years, T Nagar has become so crowded that neither cars nor people can move around here without stomping on each other. Everywhere you look, there is conflict between pedestrian space and parking. It is a similar case in several commercial centres like Pondy Bazaar, Parry’s, Broadway where illegal street parking have become a common sight.

The Chennai Corporation has proposed a number of parking solutions for these areas, but many of them have simply not taken off.

Authorities say that most projects have been stalled because public have been opposing on the grounds that these facilities would benefit only the commercial establishments and not the public.
Social worker ‘Traffic’ Ramaswamy filed a PIL in this regard saying the right solution would be for authorities to clear roads of encroachment and consult the public.

“The projects are delayed because there is no space to implement them. Shopkeepers are allowed to set shop anywhere on the road because of which there is so much encroachment and illegal parking. So though these proposals are ready, the Corporation land isn’t available to start work. That’s the main problem,” said Ramaswamy.

Experts say, a viable way of addressing Chennai’s parking requirements would be an automated multilevel car parking facility at prominent locations, ideally at walking distance from public transit points. Such a system was recently installed at Apollo Hospitals at Greams Road.

In a city with dearth of space, multilevel parking utlilises ground space most efficiently, especially in congested areas where Corporation land in not enough to construct huge on-street lots.

The Chennai City Connect Foundation is a group that has been working closely with the Corporation in planning parking schemes for the city. Balchand Parayath who works with Chennai City Connect Foundation believes the multi-level car parking could be one of the ways of solving a localized problem but cannot be the answer to the problem.

Also, one of the biggest problems with this system is that it is operationally expensive because of high power consumption.

With hundreds of vehicles plying on the roads of Chennai every day and with commercial establishments cropping up everywhere, there is little space available to setup huge on-street parking lots.

K R Chakravarti who is the Chief Projects Officer of Apollo Hospitals feels the newly introduced parking system could solve parking woes in the city to a great extent. “Considering the volume of cars coming to Apollo and the nearby commercial establishments, there is no way you can get land or level parking for all cars to park. So the only solution is to go vertically up. Earlier people had to park their vehicles 2kms away and walk all the way to a shop or this hospital. Now it is all in close quarters, they can come in, drop their keys and move on. I reiterate this is the solution to overcome our parking woes,” he said.

The Corporation is still looking into a strict parking policy covering both on-street and off-street parking and listing out the tariffs for parking and penalties.

But even if the Corporation does implement these facilities, the ideal solution for the residents of Chennai would be to adopt carpooling and increase use of public transportation to solve this parking mess.

Smitha TK, Reporter- Chennai Bureau-NDTV