Bhubaneswar, Oct. 24: The municipal corporation will build a multi-storey car parking facility for Rajadhani Haat at Unit-II to streamline traffic in the busy area.
Rajadhani Haat is one of the oldest and busiest market places in the city. On one side to Unit-I lies the city's biggest wholesale vegetable market that houses over 2,000 vendors, while on the other side at Unit-II, there lie a number of kiosks selling garments, food, juice parlours and so on. Nearly 10,000 persons visited the area every day.
The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation has engaged France-based firm Egis for the planning and designing of the multi-storey building. According to the plan, it will be an eight-storey structure, of which six floors will be used exclusively for parking and the other two for commercial and official purposes.
"We have decided to use Egis's expertise to design the building. The structure will accommodate over 450 cars at a time. An acre has already been identified for the purpose, and we have fixed one year as the deadline to complete the project," said municipal commissioner Krishan Kumar.
In September, Bhuba-neswar Smart City Limited had hired Egis as the project management consultant for the smart city project. According to the agreement, Egis will provide consultancy to the city administration mainly in developing the city infrastructure, including the projects in the town centre district.
The Bhubaneswar Town Centre District, spread over 985 acres from Bapuji Nagar to Satya Nagar, is selected to have area-based development under the ambitious Smart City Mission. The projects to be executed on this stretch include construction of bicycle tracks, lake zone, Satya Nagar Institutional Core and four housing complexes. The consultancy services for the infrastructure development on this stretch will be taken from Egis.
The project will be executed in the public-private partnership mode. "Egis will prepare the detailed project report for the parking building, after which we will invite bidders to execute the project. The selected bidder will construct the building and remain responsible for its maintenance," said a senior civic body official.
At present, parking both in the Unit-I and Unit-II market areas invites trouble for passers-by and visitors because of street-side parking. The present parking area covers nearly 50 per cent of the six-lane road on both sides - which create chaos for the pedestrians and the plying vehicles. Besides, the monopoly of autorickshaw drivers added to the problem.
"This is one of the busiest areas of the city as it houses the main vegetable and wholesale market on the Unit-I side and the market building on the Unit-II side. Thousands of people come here daily for their needs. Here the parking scenario is terrible and often creates problems for all. The multi-level parking is indeed a gorgeous plan of the city administration," said Pratik Maharana, a garment shop owner.
The local parking operator said that over 600 cars and double the number of two-wheelers ply on both sides of the road every day. "We got the licence from the corporation to operate this on-street parking lot. It is often a troublesome task for us to manage such a large number of vehicles keeping in view that the vehicles won't block the road," said a parking staff member here.
In 2015, the civic body had been asked to identify places to build multi-level parking facilities in the city.
A joint team of police, Bhubaneswar Development Authority and the corporation had then conducted a survey and identified Unit-II and a spot near the Asoka Market at Master Canteen to have the facility.
A senior civic body official said the parking facility at Master Canteen would commence under the Smart City Project of the Railway Multi Modal Hub, while the present one at Unit-II would be executed by the civic body.
"The upcoming parking facility will definitely prove a boon for the residents," said Ritesh Panda, a shopper at Market building.
