Parks in city turn parking lots

“Weekly matches in the neighbourhood park had to be cancelled,as the ball used to hit the cars parked in the ground,” the 14-year-old said. “As the car owners used to complain,we started playing on the road. But there the game gets disrupted due to vehicles.”

For a population of 11 lakh,Chandigarh has more than 7.5 lakh vehicles. Many families own two or more cars. In case of multi-storey houses,families residing on every floor have separate vehicles.

Lack of space to park these vehicles has pushed them into parks.

Rows of cars parked inside parks is a common sight in most sectors. This deprives children of a playground and senior citizens an open area.

“Roads are not safe due to the heavy traffic. The only place I could go for a walk was my neighbourhood park. But with cars parked haphazardly all around,it is difficult to walk even there,” 70-year-old O P Budhiraja said.

In some cases,residents have removed the railing around the parks to facilitate entry of the vehicles.

In sectors with a large population of paying guests,parks are being increasingly used as parking lots.

“The ground in front of my house turns into a parking lot every evening. No space is left to even take a stroll,” Neeta Sharma,a resident of Sector 37,said.

Children who play in the evening have to vacate the park once people start returning from work.

Car owners,on the other hand,say they are left with no other alternative. “I often come home late. And at that time,the playground near the house is the only place left to park my car,” Rajeev Sharma,a businessmen residing in Sector 15,said.

The first community parking lot proposed by the Municipal Corporation in Sector 19,meanwhile,is yet to see the light of the day.

Mayor Anu Chatrath said they were “working towards finding a solution to the problem.”

“Teams have been constituted to identify vacant lands and smaller parks in sectors to convert them into community parking lots,” Mayor Anu Chatrath said. “Once this process is complete,a proposal would be made.”