Reeling with shortage of parking facility for vehicles of tourists and local residents, Shimla will soon have parking facilities at 71 sites for around 5,000 vehicles constructed under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode.
Reviewing the parking and comprehensive mobility plan of Shimla town, Himachal CM said that Municipal Corporation (MC) Shimla had identified 71 sites for parking facility for over 5,000 vehicles and they should be constructed under PPP mode though Himachal Pradesh Infrastructure Development Board. He said that the construction work for all the four parking in Shimla town should be speeded up and stressed the need to construct new parking to meet out the growing need of adequate space for parking for both local people and tourists.
Singh said that under construction parking at Sanjauli for 400 vehicles, Chhota Shimla parking for 250 vehicles, parking near lift for 700 vehicles and parking at Vikas Nagar for 175 vehicles should be completed at earliest to solve the problem of idle road side parking in Shimla town.
The CM said that two floors of Sanjauli parking would be completed by January next year while Chhota Shimla car parking should be completed within a year. He directed the concerned officers to fix the time limit for the completion of other two under construction parkings.
He said Shimla MC has 35.34 square kms area with approximate population of two lakh with 75,000 floating population. There were 55,000 registered vehicles in Shimla and it has 1769 on street parking space (yellow marking) and 512 off street parking space.
CM said that Comprehensive Mobility Plan (CMP) has been prepared by MC Shimla to address traffic growth of all modes of transportation which is in synchronization with city development plan. He said Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) pods would be set up to decongest heavy traffic. It would be set up on Circular Road with approximate cost of Rs750 crores on Design Built and Operate Transfer (DBOT) bases to avoid the congestion.