Visitors to nearby commercial hubs, establishments park vehicles inside residential areas
The residents of RK Puram are facing a parking nightmare in their locality. While the residents blame the lack of designated parking space and an ever-increasing number of cars in their area, the authorities, especially the traffic police, claim much of the problem is due to the irresponsible behaviour of the people.
While RK Puram in South Delhi is primarily a residential locality, it is close to some big commercial hubs like Bhikaji Cama Place and the residents have to bear with outside vehicles parked in their area. In the overcrowded Bhikaji Cama Place, however, the authorities claim that vehicle owners ignore the no-parking signboards and park their vehicles in the service lanes and at times even in front of the gates of some of the sectors of RK Puram, making it difficult for the residents to even come out of their area.
The situation is worse at Bhikaji Cama Place where people park their vehicles indiscriminately on both sides of the service lane, leaving almost no space for other vehicles to pass, leave alone space for an ambulance or a fire tender to navigate in the area.
"The lack of parking space around commercial establishments in the area has been another major cause of the parking woes as most of the visitors park their vehicles on roads or inside the residential area," said YP Bhatt, a resident of RK Puram, Sector 5.
While authorities have put up no-parking signboards to prevent illegal parking, the residents, however, have taken the signboards for granted and park their vehicles right in front of these signboards.
Speaking to DNA, the Chief Fire Officer of Delhi Fire Service, Atul Garg, said, "Areas like Safdarjung Hospital have been a tough call for us as illegally-parked vehicles are a daily sight and during an emergency, this causes a huge problem for the fire-tenders to find a way." He added that a responsible behaviour from the citizens is needed to tackle the problem of haphazard parking in the national Capital.
Explaining the situation, one of the traffic police personnel deployed near Bhikaji Cama Place said, "Even though no-parking signboards are placed on spots where the congestion is high, vehicles are still being parked in the prohibited areas. We regularly carry out towing drive but still, the vehicles remain a common sight in the prohibited areas."
Many visitors park their cars inside our colony. Even after many complaints, the situation does not improve.
Ashok Kumar, General secretary, RWA, RK Puram sector 5
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