GUWAHATI, May 17 - Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG) has urged the city police and the district transport authorities to initiate prompt action to bring the annoying traffic chaos in the city under control in consultation with civil society organisations, including the nagarik samitees (citizens� committees).
The GMC and the GMDA should also be involved in such efforts so that the practices of vending and parking on the footpaths and the roads could be eliminated once for all. To make the people aware of the adverse impacts of such practices, the nagarik samittee movement should be strengthened, keeping the spirit of the movement intact, SGBG vice president Ajoy Dutta and general secretary Satyen Doloi told this newspaper.
They maintained that roadside parking also has a security aspect in this period of insurgency. Parking of vehicles on the roadside, particularly near the markets, malls, educational institutions, parks, etc., is fraught with serious threats so far safety of the common people is concerned.
While issuing building permission, the GMDA and the GMC should ascertain that the occupants of the rooms/flats in the buildings get adequate space to park their as well as their guests� vehicles on the compounds of the buildings cleared for permission.
The District Transport Officer or the Regional Transport Authority should ensure that the vehicle owners have their own parking places and won�t use public places like roads for parking. In many areas the vehicle owners � irrespective of the vehicles being private or commercial � use the roads as their garages for years together, they said.
Moreover, loading and unloading of materials on the roadside or footpath should be banned. All godowns located on the roadside should be shifted to such areas where space for parking the loaded vehicles and carrying out loading and unloading activities is available.
Vehicle operators, including motorcyclists, who drive at high speed and resort to great noise pollution, should be dealt with strictly. City bus operators who throw all traffic regulations to the wind, should also be dealt with firmly. Nobody should be allowed to mock at the rules and regulations. The practices of road race, blocking of roads at one� own sweet will, halting at unspecified places, etc., often resorted to by the city bus operators have been growing menacingly in the city. No leniency should be shown to those who violate the rules, they said.
They also said the GMC should stop allotting parking slots on the roads. It should instead encourage the vehicle owners to park their vehicles at the existing parking sites. The GMDA and the GMC should develop more parking sites and they should encourage private parties too, to develop modern parking lots in different city areas and impose heavy fines on vehicle owners/operators who park their vehicles on the roads.
In this context, the issue of non-completion of the parking space behind the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital, non-use of the GMDA�s multi-storey parking place on the RG Baruah Road, delay in developing the proposed parking lot on the old Cotton Collegiate School hostel campus at Panbazar, may also be pointed out, they said.
Government departments like the PWD must also be made to realise that they should have their own provisions for parking the vehicles of their officials and visitors. They should not be granted permanent settlement right on the public roads to park the vehicles of their officials and visitors, said the office-bearers of the voluntary organisation.
