Two community marriage halls on the Jayadev Vihar-Indradhanu Market stretch. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, July 10: The next time you decide to attend a wedding at one of the kalyan mandaps (marriage halls) in the capital, be sure to leave your car behind at home.

With most of these halls lacking parking facilities, every marriage ceremony is causing headache and making life miserable for the local residents.

While these trouble-making kalyan mandaps can be spotted in almost every area of the city, five of these community halls near Indradhanu market in Jayadev Vihar have caused the maximum inconvenience to local residents, who find it very difficult to navigate the stretch on a day when many marriage ceremonies are on.

“All the local residents depend on the Indradhanu market and the daily vegetable market. The road passing through the square is an important link, but the owners of the community marriage halls have violated all norms and constructed the houses without adequate parking space. It needs to be found out that how the authorities permitted the construction of five kalyan mandaps within a distance of 100 metres,” said Rakesh Mohapatra, a resident of Jayadev Vihar.

Local residents also complained about the noise pollution created by the activities of all the five kalyan mandaps.

“Before permitting the building plans, the authorities concerned should have taken into account the traffic flow for the future. Even in 1995 when we started living here there was no community marriage hall. Around 2001, one kalyan mandap had been built. Subsequently, the others came up. The civic authorities should have regulated their functioning,” Mohapatra added.

Dental surgeon N.B. Panda also echoed similar words.

“The civic authorities should ensure that the people do not suffer from the inconvenience. When the square is on a major road connecting Nayapalli, Jayadev Vihar, NH-5 and two markets, the community marriage halls should have the basic parking facilities,” he said.

Subhransu Sekhar Pattnaik, councillor of ward No. 20 of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), recalled an experience last year when a nearby resident had to arrange for a stretcher to carry his pregnant daughter to a distance of around 50 metres as the ambulance could not enter the area in the evening because of a traffic jam caused by marriage ceremony taking place at a kalyan mandap.

“There should be a control over the proliferation of the community marriage halls operated by the private players, especially the ones situated close to squares and major roads,” said Pattnaik.

Mayor Ananta Narayan Jena had a more interesting tale to narrate.

“After inaugurating a small business outlet near the square recently, when I was about to leave, I heard some youth passing a comment on the traffic jam because of the vehicles parked by our team. Upon asking them, they explained how the local residents are suffering due to congestion caused by the parties during the peak marriage season,” Jena said.

“I even went to the office of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), met the officials and got the assurance that the parking issues would be solved with notices being served on the owners of the kalyan mandaps. But till date no action has been taken. The most surprising part is that how these building plans were approved without provision for sufficient parking areas,” the mayor added.

On every aspect of city management, people are blaming the BMC, but here at Jayadev Vihar, because of the wrongdoing of the development authority, citizens are suffering and the finger is being pointed at the civic authorities.

BDA planning member Prashant Patnaik admitted that many kalyan mandaps were being constructed without proper building plan approvals.

“They are creating problems for the city. However, the planning department has nothing to do with it,” he clarified.

Another senior BDA official said on condition of anonymity: “Unless action is taken on such violators by the enforcement wing of the development body, the city will see more such violations and people will continue to suffer. The enforcement wing should act and be active.”

Apart from Jayadev Vihar areas such as Nayapalli, Ravi Talkies Road, Old Town, Gopabandhu Square, Madhusudan Nagar, Bhimatangi and Nageswar Tangi have many community marriage halls where the parking problem creates serious inconvenience for the local residents.

Are marriage halls in busy localities a boon or a bane? Tell ttorissa@abp.in.