The parking woes in Chandigarh seem to be endless with no permanent solution in sight. The challaning drive by UT Traffic Police for wrong parking has failed to act as deterrent for the defaulters. For, only 11 per cent of the total challans issued have been paid at the Traffic Police lines, Sector 29.
This year, the UT Traffic Police has issued more than 7,500 challans from January to July. And, out of these, only 872 violators have paid fine at Traffic Police lines, Sector 29 while the rest of the cases totaling 6,628 have been moved to the Court.
With only few violators paying the fine, the challaning drive of UT Traffic Police for wrong parking has apparently failed in its intent. During the challaning drives to keep check on wrong parking, the challan sticker is pasted on the vehicle of violators and its registration number is registered. The copy of the challan is then sent to the accused with 20 days deadline to pay `300 fine at the Traffic lines.
In case, the accused fails to pay it, the challan is forwarded to the Court which then summons the defaulter. With ever increasing number of vehicles on roads and limited space for parking here, the wrong parking is an issue that has taken toll on traffic rulebook. The number of challans issued per month has also increased manifolds over six months. And, the Sectors with shopping complexes are facing the problem at its worst.
After one year of its establishment, the city had around 940 vehicles and the number of vehicles has now escalated to over 9.5 lakh. In its recent survey, New Delhi based Centre of Science and Environment had stated, “In Chandigarh, new registration of cars every year creates demand for additional land for parking equal to 58 football fields.”
Finding parking space in Sectors 8, 9, 17, 19, 22, 26, 34, 35 is always a trouble, especially during evenings and weekends. And, the parking compliance has become a farfetched dream in Chandigarh now. When contacted, Kamaldeep, DSP Traffic said, “We are still in the process to strengthen the system of issuing challans for wrong parking. The wrong parking challan stickers sometimes reach to thousand vehicles per month and it takes time to collect fines in such large numbers,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Court has no separate records for the wrong parking fine collection. The traffic wing constables at the Court have to handle manual records of all the fines paid. The pile of registers stacked on their tables tells the tale of scarcity of computers to manage the proceedings. “We will have to open up each and every register to count the number of parking challans paid till date. This may take days to compile” said an official when asked about challans paid in the Court.