Late on Monday night, when two children were electrocuted in a slum in Kandivali's Poisar area, a fire engine could not make its way to the slum pocket and was stalled at Thakur Complex, local residents claimed.
This was because auto rickshaws were parked on the three narrow roads leading from Kandivali to the Poisar shantytown, even on footpaths, as they are every night, they said.
The slum pocket in Poisar links Kandivali East and West. On the night of the incident and even the next day, the fire engine could not move all the way to the end of Thakur Complex in Kandivali East, locals said. The passage was crammed with autos, since after 10 in the night, drivers park their three-wheelers on the approach roads in Thakur Complex.
On Monday, the firemen just had to walk to the spot, the residents said, voicing fears that "if a fire breaks out here, it will be catastrophic".
"These auto drivers park their three-wheelers along the road and on the footpath so they don't have to walk much the next day while taking out their vehicles," said resident and activist Sanjay Jaiswal.
"This has become a big problem for pedestrians and motorists. Even during daytime, big vehicles find it difficult to get through this stretch," he said.
The auto rickshaw union blames the administration, saying no thought has been given to providing them a parking space. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's parking policy offers no clarity for autos. There is a pay-per-use BMC parking lot for autos in Thakur Complex, but it charges Rs 300 a night, so drivers shun it.
The local MP, Gopal Shetty, agrees that the problem is dire.
Shetty, who recently won the Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North constituency which covers Kandivali, said the civic authority needs to hatch a plan for parking on the narrow streets of the locality.
"The road in this slum pocket is barely 15 feet wide. The BMC should take the parking issue seriously. It has to be planned out, only then can there be a solution to the parking problem," Shetty said.
Shashank Rao, Mumbai Automen's Union leader, squarely blamed "the government" for not taking parking woes seriously.
"The government has not addressed the issue of parking at all. There are no parking lots for autos and the drivers are forced to park on roads."
Haphazardly parked autos and taxis pose a problem across the city, not just in Kandivali. The problem escalates outside railway stations, where autos and taxis flood the road, leaving little space for emergency service vehicles as well as motorists and pedestrians.
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