Chandigarh Sector 17’s multi-level parking a no-go for most despite low cost, shorter wait
Low cost and shorter waiting time notwithstanding, the facility at the Chandigarh’s Sector 17 that can house 900 vehicles averages 200 visitors a day
Where on one hand, the UT administration and municipal corporation (MC) are making efforts for the rejuvenation of the Sector-17 plaza with new fountains and lighting, the authorities’ struggle to manage the parking space in the area persists.
The multi-level parking lot, which holds the capacity to park at least 900 vehicles at a time, has failed to find takers with no more than 200 vehicles coming in on an average each day. The surface parking lots, meanwhile, are running double the capacity.
That despite the automated multi-level parking, which shares stark similarities with the crowd-pulling parking space at malls, offering space at a much-lower cost.
The swarms of crowds that the festive season drew to Sector 17, the heart of Chandigarh, further worsened the problem. The carnivals and exhibitions added extra colour to the plaza in the festive season, but visitors’ joy was impeded by a long 20-minute wait to find a parking spot in the surface parking lot.
Started in 2016 amid much fanfare, the parking lot was built at the cost of ₹48 crore. Several upgrades were made from time-to-time, including automatic boom barriers, dispenser, computer, controller and display screen. The civic body’s efforts in running the lot fall flat despite fixation of low parking fee as people still do not prefer to use the facility.
Sanjeev Chadha, president of Sector 17 market welfare association and Chandigarh Bepor Mandal (CBM) general secretary, “Though Sector 17 has enough parking capacity, including surface parking lots and a multi-level parking lot, long traffic jams are witnessed due to bus stand and carnivals in the sector 17 grounds. Multi-level parking always remains vacant as people wish to park their vehicles just outside the shop and since surface parking lots remain full, people wait for hours in the queue to enter the parking lots.”
“Earlier, I wasn’t aware of the facility. But once I tried to visit the parking lot, it took extra time to park in the building and go to the shops. I would rather wait for a few minutes to park my car outside the shop,” Ajay Singh, a visitor to Sector 17 said.
“The parking lot is underutilised because of its poor maintenance. Most of the parking area is occupied illegally by taxis of a private car rental service operator, and over 100 Chandigarh Smart City Limited’s bicycles which are purchased for a public bike sharing project. On the other floor, MC has dumped records and files, further making the area dingy,” area councillor Saurabh Joshi said.
“Besides this, MC has spent lakhs of rupees on the maintenance of the lot but the conditions of building remain the same with poor water seepage. A proper inquiry should be done on how these taxis and bicycles can be parked without permissions and how much money has been spent on the lot’s maintenance,” he added.
The MC officials, privy to the project, said since the MC is operating the lot by itself, they are facing huge financial losses.
“The MC charges ₹5 from two-wheelers and ₹10 from four wheelers, against the surface parking lots which charge ₹7 and ₹14 from two-wheelers and four-wheelers respectively. Around 24 employees and a supervisor manage the lot and their monthly salaries amount to a total of ₹4.62 lakh, but the monthly revenue is only ₹2.5 lakh”, the officials said.
Speaking on the issue, municipal commissioner Anindita Mitra said, “Since MC’s new smart parking project is underway, it will revise the parking rates in the city and also increase fees for surface parking. People will then prefer underground lots where rates have been fixed cheaper. This will motivate them to use multi-level parking lots and utilisation will increase.”
