Parking pains: 23 lakh vehicles struggle with 450 legal spots in Kolkata

KOLKATA: More than 23 lakh vehicles are now registered in Kolkata, a city which has only 450-odd legal parking spots for around 35,000 vehicles, mostly bikes. This huge demand-supply gap makes it difficult for the ongoing cop crackdown on illegal parking to yield any significant, long-term results.
This gap between the nu-mber of vehicles on the road and the available parking space accounts for the high rate of illegal parking, including pavement parking, say cops.
Prodded by chief minister Mamata Banerjee's rebuke, naming cops and politicians, for allowing fleecing in the name of parking, KMC and cops have identified at least 114 unauthorised parking lots across the city. In the absence of enough parking space, motorists give in to their demand. Also, KMC does not earn any revenue from these places.
Cops had begun a drive against these illegal parking zones - clamping vehicles, penalising owners and arresting parking touts. However, divided opinion - among the citizens as well as the police - on the practice of clamping illegally parked vehicles forced the men in uniform to put the drive on hold from Saturday. They, however, continued to issue spot fines and penalise the violators.
"We understand that there is limited parking space in the city, which forces many drivers to park their vehicles at illegitimate spots. But we are acting as per law," said a senior traffic police officer.
TOI had written last year how with 2,448 vehicles per kilometre of road, Kolkata has the highest vehicular density of all Indian metros.
Kolkata's vehicular growth has largely been driven by personal vehicles, especially during the pandemic. This growth coincided with the weakening of public transport system.
The city witnessed a record-breaking surge in new car registrations during the first four months of this year, surpassing the previous high in the corresponding period two years ago. Data from the public vehicles department offices across the city, including Beltala, Kasba, Bidhannagar and Behala, revealed that 32,128 units were sold between Jan and April.
This figure represents a 15% increase from the previous year's 27,346 vehicles registered in the same period and a 14% rise compared to the 27,368 vehicles sold in 2022. Transport officials anticipated the trend to persist throughout the year. In that case, 2024 could emerge as a record-breaking year, with the potential for over 90,000 vehicles to be sold and registered.
According to KMC officials, the authorised parking lots have space for 25 to 70 cars and 50 to 150 bikes. For example, the southern stretch of Bentinck Street, till Chandni Chowk, has provision for parking of 50 cars and 200 motorbike, while Lower Rowdon Street has space for 23 cars and 90 bikes.
But there are places like the Fancy Market area, the stretch between Thakurpukur 3A bus stand and Thakurpukur bazar and opposite KPC hospital, where there is no legal parking space. Over the last few days, police had clamped down on a few vehicles parked in unauthorized zones and slapped fines at spots like Lenin Sarani, APC Roy Road, Jorasanko, Mayo Road, Hazra Road and Diamond Harbour Road. This led to discontent among car owners and drivers who expressed dismay at finding themselves labelled as offenders.
"I always follow the law, whether it's on the road or in personal life but finding cars clamped and trying to argue with traffic cops as if I am a criminal is something I cannot agree to. Till the time there is more clarity, I am not bringing my car to office," said Sutirtha Basu, who has his office at Fern Road in Gariahat.
(With inputs from
Dwaipayan Ghosh)