Bhubaneswar, July 10: Illegal parking continues to remain a major hurdle in the state capital's march towards fulfilling its smart city dream.

It is not only the authorities who battle the problems of illegal parking, but also the motorists and pedestrians. And the worst victim of illegal parking is the stretch of Rajmahal Road (also known as Unit-I Road) between Rajmahal Square and AG Square. The stretch in front of Unit-I market, which is also a part of this route, has parked vehicles occupying almost 60 per cent of the road, leaving little space for those on the go.

The situation becomes worse in the evenings when the market is choc-a-bloc with two-wheelers and four-wheelers. The smart city mission states that cycle tracks and adequate parking space will be created across Bhubaneswar. But, looking at the present state of affairs in some parts of the city, it seems that a lot needs to be done in this regard.

Assistant commissioner of police (traffic), Bhubaneswar, Jatin Panda said they had two cranes to tow away vehicles that are parked illegally across the city. He said that some 3,058 drivers were booked for illegal parking last year. "An amount of Rs 8,51,200 was collected from the defaulters during the year," Panda said.

Panda said that the stretch of Master Canteen Road between Master Canteen and Rajmahal Square remained a concern for them.

"The chaos is mainly due to the change in the position of one of the major cuts in the median on this road stretch and also the fact that there is little space for people to park their vehicles," he said.

Panda said that people were parking their vehicles without bothering about no-parking guidelines. This continues to happen even after some 20 junctions in the city had been declared no-parking zones.

Asked whether the traffic police had plans to conduct special awareness drives at no-parking zones, he said it was being done regularly. He appealed to the residents to co-operate with the traffic police in making the city a parking-friendly place.

Besides, the tendency of the people to park vehicles under flyovers, especially those under construction, has emerged as a new challenge for the commuters and also construction workers. The glaring example of this is the under-construction railway overbridge from Rasulgarh to Saheed Nagar.

Sagarika Satapathy, 28, a bank employee who uses the stretch from Rasulgarh to Saheed Nagar via the railway level crossing every day on her way to work, said: "It becomes tough to travel on this stretch, especially in the evenings when vehicles are parked on both sides. To add to the miseries, the road is yet to be concretised."

The railway overbridge, when completed, will end at the Maharshi College road, which is already narrow and the situation has worsened due to illegally-parked vehicles.

The smart city challenge is not limited to ways of making the city clean and green but it also involves inculcating a sense of responsibility among the residents.

The municipal corporation's additional commissioner Alok Kumar Kar said that people violate rules even though several parking slots that have been allotted at major markets and business establishments across the city.

"People often complain that they are being asked to pay for parking their vehicles. This prompts them to encroach upon the road and park their vehicles, thereby causing inconvenience to motorists," he said.