The plot for the parking lot in Kurseong. (Vivek Singh)

Kurseong, May 15: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha-led Kurseong Municipality has decided to construct a parking lot that will accommodate around 70 vehicles on a vacant land opposite the railway station here.

“We have already held a meeting with the railway officials and they have agreed to co-operate with us. Since the land is near the tracks, co-operation of the railway authorities was necessary,” said Balaram Chettri, the vice-chairman of the municipality.

Subroto Nath, the director of the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, said: “If the parking lot does not hamper the train movement, the DHR has no problem with its construction.”

Chettri said vehicles could be kept in the two-storied slot coming up on the same land where the GNLF-controlled civic body had performed a bhoomi puja in 2003 for a taxi stand. However, the plan did not materialise because of unknown reasons.

The Bengal government had allotted the GNLF-run board around Rs 44 lakh for the taxi stand.

According to Chettri, a sum of Rs 34 lakh lying unspent with the municipality would be used for the parking structure.

There is no provision for parking in Kurseong currently. Taxi drivers and individuals park their vehicles along NH55 and Bardhman Road, creating traffic congestion in the town.

Welcoming the move, a taxi driver said tourists would no longer shy away from shopping in the town because of unavailability of parking space.

“Only with proper parking space, the town will grow like Darjeeling,” said Subash Pradhan, the secretary of Kurseong Joint Action Committee, an association of taxi syndicates.