Cuttack, June 17: Haphazard parking and encroachment on the public road at Chandni Chowk has affected smooth flow of traffic in the city, leading to widespread resentment among commuters.

Chaos prevails on Chandni Chowk, which connects Sishu Bhavan, high court, Nimchouri, Dagarpada, Chandi Mandir Square and Ring Road. Lack of regular enforcement on illegal parking by the traffic wing of police has compounded the problems of the commuters.

Though the joint squad, consisting of the traffic officials, Cuttack Municipal Corporation and the Cuttack Development Authority, is carrying out regular drives to ease congestion on major roads in various parts of the city, no steps have been taken to clear encroachments on Chandni Chowk. Local residents are demanding immediate removal of all encroachments ahead of rath yatra in July.

"How can there be free flow of traffic when vehicles are parked on both sides of the road on the entire 1km stretch from the Jagannath temple at Chandni Chowk to Nimchouri?" said Ramesh Swain, a daily commuter.

Swain alleged that vehicles are parked in a haphazard manner round the clock at Chandni Chowk, where many important offices, including the tehsil office and Sishu Bhavan, a major paediatric centre, are located.

Lack of adequate parking space for vehicles, especially four-wheelers, has aggravated the congestion in the area. Though there is a proposal for a dedicated parking space for four-wheelers, it is still pending with the corporation.

A civic body official said that the process of creating infrastructure for the proposed parking space had reached the final stage and the facility would be available from the end of this month.

"We are facing problems since illegal parking has assumed serious proportions not only at Chandni Chowk, but also near the high court. The problem is even more acute on the Ring Road as people are parking cars even on the pavement and this causes problems for pedestrians," said local resident Manorath Pradhan.

Senior police officials said concrete measures would be taken to put a check on illegal parking near the high court and Chandni Chowk.

"We will shortly launch a crackdown to ensure that commuters do not face problems due to encroachments at Chandni Chowk and the area surrounding the high court," said assistant commissioner of police (traffic) P.K. Dalai.

Dalai said the parking issue on the Ring Road was likely to be resolved after the public works department completed the much-awaited multi-level parking near the high court.