Lack of Parking space in Gorakhpur

Roads in the city's commercial hubs such as Golghar, Bank Road, Urdu Bazaar, Ghantaghar, Reti Chowk, Betiahata, Asuran,  have become "congested" in the absence of adequate parking lots. Vehicle parking, along footpaths and on roads, are a common sight on major stretches, making the already narrow roads narrower. Long our traffic jams are not rare in the city though administration showed its huge concern towards traffic in past few months and made many plans like making many roads of the city one way and Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation (GMC) lifting vehicles is common sight. The question arises in lack of proper parking space where the people will park their vehicle and due to this situation both people and administration face difficulties.

shopping complex in Golghar with insufficient parking space

Vehicular traffic has increased many folds in the last one decade in City. However, residents believe that parking spaces required for such a large number of vehicles is yet to take shape in Gorakhpur and needs immediate attention from the Gorakhpur Municipal Corporation, Gorakhpur Development Authority and police department.  Arun Srivastav, 80, a resident of Dilezakpur, says, “When I was young my city was a clean and peaceful place to live. I still remember how I enjoyed cycling while returning from office and now my son when he comes back from the office in his AC car looks so disturbed and most of the time lament over the heavy traffic jam. Earlier there were very few cars in the city and most of the people use to have either cycle or scooter but with the increase in the population and number of vehicles the administration didn’t make any plan for proper parking place.”

Big Hotel near Town Hall with no parking space

There are many multistory buildings, hotels, marriage halls and shopping arcades which either lack parking space or using it for some other purpose, Dr. Sushma Pandey, Psychology Department, DDU Gorakhpur University says, “Deviations might not occur if hefty penalties are slapped. A tough message has to reach those who violate the building bylaws. It is mandatory for all multi-storied commercial buildings to provide parking space in the basement. There have been complaints of use of basement space for commercial purposes.”

In the same tone Gyaeshwar Pandey, a resident of Mohaddipur, says, “I get surprised when I see a big hotel in Town Hall area without a parking space and eminent people of the city park their vehicles along with the road divider which most of the time cause traffic jam in the area. In the heart of the city, a multistory shopping complex has no parking space and the basement is used for shops. A marriage hall in front of a hospital at Unchwa area of the city lacks parking space which cause a lot of problems to people and patients inside the hospital. There is a long list but no action has been taken against such high profile powerful people.”

The scarcity of traffic police staff another is another hurdle in traffic control, SP traffic,  Sri Prakash Diwedi, says, “ We have only 47traffic police  staff in the city and we are entitle to only regulate the traffic  and in wrongly parked vehicle lifting from the roads, we just help GMC.”

On the issue, Commissioner, P Guru Prasad, said, “Yes I know the city has less parking space and we are working on it to resolve the situation.  Many multistory buildings have been identified which are violating the rules and regulations and notices has been send to them. Our next step is to identify marriage halls and afterwards other buildings for proper actions.  There are many crossroads in the city which are unnecessarily taking a lot of space, we have identified them and make them small in size to widen the roads. For parking space we are locating places like land inside Nagar Nigam office, Land near All India Radio office, Land inside Jalkal compound, basement of GDA tower etc and the process is underway. We are also going to have a flyover at Rustampur- transport nagar area and the funds have been also sactioned under current year budget, another flyover near Nakha area to control the traffic near Gorakhnath temple is under construction. We are also working on Laldiggi road and Jail road for traffic control and Rs 2.5 crore has been already sanctioned.”

On the same lies, the Vice Chairman of Gorakhpur Development Authority, DS Upadhyaya, said, “We have identified 44 multistory buildings which are violating rules regarding parking space and notice has been send to them among which 27 have replied and we have already taken action against 9 buildings and very soon action will be taken against the rest of the buildings. We are searching land for parking spaces and once the process gets completed we’ll start the work.”