Cuttack, Sept. 6: Cuttack Municipal Corporation’s inordinate delay in setting up new parking lots has left city commuters high and dry.

The civic body had earlier identified 20 sites for constructing parking lots at various locations in the city. The sites were selected after a committee was formed to look into the matter following a high court order in 2008.

However, not a single parking lot has come up so far. As a result, commuters are forced to park their vehicles on roadsides in busy commercial areas, creating obstructions to smooth vehicular movement.

Lack of parking facilities has also forced people to avoid travelling in cars while visiting major markets to avoid traffic rush and paying fine for illegal parking particularly during evening hours in city.

“No concrete measure has been taken by the civic body to set up new parking lots to resolve traffic congestion at prominent places in the city,” said a senior traffic official.

At present, Cuttack has 18 parking lots, which are by and large insufficient to accommodate rising number of vehicles.

Major commercial areas such as Haripur-Dolamundai, Bajrakabati, Ranihat, Mangalabag, Buxi Bazar, Choudhry Bazar and Naya Sarak are the worst-affected by illegal parking.

Though there is a provision for parking at Mangalabag, Bajrakabati and near Gaurishankar Park, it is not adequate keeping in view the number of people visiting these areas.

Similarly, the system of one-side parking on road introduced by the police last year had failed to put a check on traffic congestion at Naya Sarak.

“There is only scope for parking of four-wheelers which has been converted into a taxi stand near Gaurishankar Park. Despite being a major commercial centre, there is no specified parking lot for two-wheelers here,” said Rakesh Pradhan, a commuter. Accumulation of water creates problems for commuters at the Kanika Chhak parking lot.

According the data available with the regional transport department, around 26,342 vehicles, including 19,398 two-wheelers and 6,947 four-wheelers, were registered in Cuttack zone in 2008-09. The number of registered vehicles rose to 37,685, including 29,273 two-wheelers and 8,412 four-wheelers, in 2009-10.

Similarly, around 40,000 vehicles were registered in 2010-11.

City police are carrying regular raids to check illegal parking on city streets and over 200 violators are caught every month.

On the other hand, mayor Saumendra Ghose said that steps would shortly be taken to review and chalk out plans for setting up the proposed parking lots in city.

“Various issues related to setting up new parking lots will be resolved and the matter would shortly be discussed with the traffic management committee. We hope that the parking lots would come up in the city by the end of December,” he said.