lllegal parking: MSRDC hits a wall

The state road body's plan to construct walls under five flyovers in south Mumbai to check illegal parking has hit a hurdle.

The Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation said there are too many vehicles that have been parked in an unauthorised manner and it doesn't have any space to keep them somewhere else.

The MSRDC had proposed a month ago to erect 5-foot-high walls under the overpass near the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre flyover, the Kurla-CST flyover, Elphinstone flyover, Ferguson bridge in Lower Parel and Kalina-Vakola flyover.

The road corporation had floated a tender inviting bids, only to can the plan citing unavailability of land.

An MSRDC official said, "We require land for the plan as we are going to appoint an agency that will tow the illegally parked vehicles but we do not have land for the same. Without towing of vehicles we cannot go further with the construction of walls below the flyovers."

Earlier, the Bombay high court had also asked the state government to tackle the problem. The state home department had in 2008 said that parking under flyovers could pose a security threat. This had prompted authorities to ban parking under 27 flyovers in the city.

According to the MSRDC, it has been demanding that permanent traffic police chowkies should rid the space of illegally parked vehicles. Officials said they have also written to the traffic department on many occasions considering that it is their job to tow away vehicles.

Amitesh Kumar, joint commissioner of police (traffic) said he had not received any request from MSRDC for land allotment to keep the towed vehicles. "It is the civic body that will be in a position to allot land for any such purpose."