Proposals

In an effort to allay such problems, the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation has now decided to construct a six-feet-wide walkway around parks located along the V-6 roads for residents to park their vehicles. MC officials said this will decongest the roads and allow smooth movement of traffic.

After repeated requests from residents, the MC has also decided to widen the V-6 roads of 13 sectors of the city. An amount of Rs 10 crore has been earmarked for the process. The MC is contemplating converting open spaces in front of the residential areas into parking lots to be manned by the residential welfare bodies. Civic authorities feel this arrangement will ease the parking problem.

Councillors glad

Councillor Vijay Singh Rana said the southern sectors are the worst affected by the shortage of parking space.

He said the construction of concrete walkways around the parks could solve the problem but a system of community parking should be introduced.

Councillor Jatinder Bhatia agreed saying: “With the decision to widen the internal roads, the residents will finally have a respite from their parking woes.”

Mayor says

Chandigarh Mayor Pardeep Chhabra said: “Providing adequate parking space to residents has become a challenge now. With the widening of the V-6 roads, there will be more parking space and this will also stop residents from using the green belts as parking lots.”

He added that the internal V-6 roads will be widened in a phased manner. Earlier, two sectors — Sector 44 and 10 — had been selected for the pilot project but bowing to the councillors demand, the project was expanded to cover 11 more sectors.