Illegal parking in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 2: The traffic wing of city police has launched a drive to free the city roads of unauthorised parking ahead of the Savitri Brata and Raja festivals.

Over 200 vehicles have been fined in the last three days, while several of them have also been towed away. They were released only after payment of heavy penalties.

“We have fined people found illegally parking their vehicles on the public place causing inconvenience to other commuters. We received complaints from people about unauthorised parking on Janpath from Big Bazaar Square to Rajmahal Square stretch, on both sides of the road connecting AG Square to Rajmahal Square and around some shopping malls. We will conduct such raids in the coming days as more people are likely to visit shops ahead of the festive season,” said assistant commissioner of police Binod Das.

Another official said that though the extreme left lanes on several roads have been left for people to park their vehicles, they have been violating the norms and parking their vehicles on other lanes too. This creates traffic chaos at places such as near Master Canteen Square, in front of Big Bazaar, in Unit-I Market area and near Pantaloons.

“We have taken steps against violators in the past, they have not learnt anything,” said a police officer in charge of a towing team, while warning those who park their vehicles illegally near Swosti hotel on Janpath. However, many people also slammed the police for such actions citing that lack of parking lots forced them to park vehicles on roadsides.

“It’s the authorities who should have provided parking spaces for people, but they are indulged in fine collections. When we come to a shop, we can not keep our vehicles at one kilometre away. We park the vehicles in front of the shop or wherever there is space. We do not want to cause traffic problem, but there should be space for parking,” said Tanayashree Rout, who had come to Janpath to purchase gold ornaments.

On the other hand, senior police officials said that providing parking area to people was the duty of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the general administration department.

“Despite writing to them time and again, they are not taking any steps. We had identified 73 places in the city for parking, but no action has been taken on this regard,” said a police officer.

However, an official in the corporation said that they would take steps for providing parking spaces to people in busy areas after the expansion work at several places is over.

“We are going to finalise on these parking spots soon,” said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.