Vehicles parked on the road outside Unit-I Market in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 29: City police has decided to step up its campaign against illegal parking, which has become a major problem for the capital.

To deal with the menace, the city police will soon procure a new towing vehicle to take away illegally parked four-wheelers, including sports utility vehicles (SUVs), from different areas of the capital to ease traffic congestion.

At present, the traffic wing of the city police has only one towing vehicle, which can lift only two-wheelers and small cars.

“Lack of mechanised vehicles for lifting illegally parked cars is hampering our drive against illegal parking. Hence, we have decided to get another,” said a police officer.

Deputy commissioner of police Nitinjit Singh said violators of traffic rules would face stringent action. “Drivers will be fined Rs 500 for parking vehicles in no-parking zones,” he said.

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has declared four places in the city as no-parking zones. “A letter in this regard has already been sent to the city police. We have also formed a committee to look into cases of illegal parking,” said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

The issue of illegal parking was in focus recently when one person was killed following a dispute over collection of parking fees.

Two persons were also arrested for collecting parking fees illegally near Big Bazaar in Kharvela Nagar.

Though a major shopping mall, Big Bazaar does not enjoy adequate parking facilities. While the parking area provided by the BMC can accommodate only around 1,000 two-wheelers and 60 odd four-wheelers, the basement parking lot cannot hold more than 100 four-wheelers and 200 two-wheelers.

Non-availability of space forces visitors to park their vehicles on both sides of the road, which has been labelled as a no-parking zone by the BMC.

Once the basement parking lot and the BMC parking area gets occupied, visitors have no choice but to park their vehicles at their own risk.

“We are ready to pay parking fees. But we don’t get a scope to park our vehicles,” said Brundesh Mishra, a student of ITER College, who frequently visits the mall.

Many vehicles can be seen parked in the no-parking area in front of the mall.

“It is the responsibility of the mall owner to provide parking space to its customers. They must realise that lack of parking area leads to vehicles being parked at unauthorised places,” said Sitanshu Swain, a resident of VSS Nagar.

“Considering that there is no adequate parking space in the area, fine for illegal parking should be collected from the people who run the mall instead of ordinary citizens who are forced to park their vehicles anywhere for want of space,” said Chandrakant Baral, a local resident.