Navi Mumbai: Vehicle parking, which is already a major issue in Navi Mumbai, branded as the City of the 21st Century, is set to only worsen with the city witnessing massive redevelopment and fresh construction of houses and commercial complexes, resident groups say.
As it is, one experiences bottlenecks even on wide roads with the urban planners paying no attention to parking and one shudders when one imagines the scenario in about two to three years, said social activist B N Kumar, a Navi Mumbai resident for well over four decades.
Kumar drew the attention of Navi Mumbai Municipal and police commissioners to the impending crisis and called for immediate planning before it is too late.
For instance, CIDCO had planned the 12 km, three-and-three-lane road from Vashi Railway station to Airoli on the lines of the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. But in reality, what we see today is that less than two lanes are available for vehicles on either side, Kumar, convenor of Alert Citizens Team (ACT).
One lane each on both the sides of Navi Mumbai’s main thoroughfare is occupied by haphazard parking, he said. CIDCO had planned residential colonies and shopping complexes four decades ago without making provision for adequate parking.
That was probably because the urban planners could not visualise the explosive growth of the population and vehicles, Kumar observed.
The situation is worse in the lanes and bylanes, said Madhu Shankar who has been fighting against regular traffic jams in Sector 29 which is dotted with several temples. The narrow two-lane roads are always packed with luxury vehicles with many of them occupying even the pavement. “So, the net result is that one can neither drive on the road nor can walk on the pavement here,” she said.
Due to her persistent efforts, the traffic police have decided to make parking on one side and no parking on the other side of the road and the residents are waiting for this rule to be strictly implemented, Shankar said.
“We cannot find any parking space in Vashi’s business areas such as Sector-17,” said Sunil Wankhede, an officer with a private health insurance company. “We are forced to go in circles hunting for parking,” he said and explained that many of his clients also complained of parking problems.
Traffic jams are common particularly during the school hours in the morning, afternoon and evenings as buses, autos and two wheelers come out. Adding to the mess are the municipal garbage trucks which also ply in the roads around the same time, Kumar said.
The massive redevelopment that is going on Vashi’s sectors 9, 10 and 16 are only going to add to the woes as the roads are not being expanded in direct proportion to the heights of the skyscrapers, he pointed out.
For instance, the redevelopment of JN-1 and 2 type houses with ground plus two floors will make way for 20+ storeyed buildings and motorists from these are bound to have a tough time getting in and out of their complexes. The new buildings may be earmarking parking spaces for their occupants, but when they get onto the narrow roads, they will face hell of a traffic, Kumar said. Apart from shopping malls, even hospitals often run out of parking.
Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and traffic police have launched an odd-even date parking scheme, but hardly anyone observes the rule, thus blocking both sides of the roads. “We invite the civic and police officials to travel with us to understand the parking crisis,” Kumar said, throwing a challenge to the officers. “Yes, you cannot understand parking issues by sitting in your air-conditioned offices,” said Shankar.
Similar stories emerge from Thane-Belapur road, Airoli and Nerul. It is in this context that the people living in Sector-15, CBD Belapur, are opposing the Kharghar-Nerul coastal road that will pass through their area.
“It will not only create a mess in otherwise a peaceful area but destroy the green belt that the residents built with painstaking efforts over a decade or so,” said activist Shubhangi Tirodkar, a local resident. Meanwhile, new vehicle registrations have been zooming at 8% a year in Navi Mumbai, RTO official said.
