22 Jun 11: The city’s oldest bazaars are well known and are the most crowded places in the city. But due to lack of proper parking facilities, the customers are facing huge problem. The popular bazaars in the city are Sultan Bazaar, General bazaar, Begum bazaar and Abids. They lack designated parking areas, which is leading to heavy traffic congestion in and surrounding areas, as customers are forced to park their vehicles on the road itself. Even the municipal corporation is not taking any concrete measures to provide parking to the commuters.
Poor planning by GHMC has led to the establishment of parking areas at distant locations from the core areas. The nearest parking zone for General bazaar or MG road is 3 km away near Sanjeeviah park or 1 km away near parade grounds. For Abids, the parking zone in the vicinity is at 1 km away in Sultan bazaar. The new upcoming parking zone for Abids is at 2.8 km away at Begum bazaar.
Due to these parking difficulties, some businesses have even closed their branches in these areas. Some old shopping bazaars such as, Sultan Bazaar and Laad Bazaar have parking lots, but the shop keepers and customers have experienced bad incidents like theft of their vehicles or damage to their vehicles.
Keeping the woes of shopkeepers and customers in view, the GHMC is coming up with new plan to construct parking lots for these bazaars.
Source: Times of India