The lack of parking slots in south Kashmir’s Shopian town is not only giving a bad experience to the motorists but also causing hardships to the pedestrians.
The district with a population of over 2.66 lakh has been grappling with parking woes while the number of private cars in the district has increase manifold.
“It is the only town bereft of a parking space. We umpteen times brought the issue to the notice of the administration but to no avail,” said Javed Ahmad, a resident of Shopian.
“The vehicles are being parked on roadsides. The pedestrians have to walk through the narrow space left between the two parked vehicles,” he said.
Due to the lack of parking slots, traffic jams in Shopian town are frequent, particularly during the peak hours.
“Traffic jams are a routine in Shopian town. Sometimes, it takes more than an hour to cover a distance of 2 to 3 km, said Mubashir Ahmad, a commuter.
He said that despite a considerable increase in the number of private vehicles over the past several years, no arrangements had been made for parking of these vehicles in the town.
Another resident said that the available spaces where adequate parking slots could have been established had been encroached upon.
Locals said that the town had at least seven cab stands and the space occupied by them could be used for parking if these cabs are shifted to the new general bus stand.
“The new bus stand is enough spacious to accommodate all these stands,” they said.
An official at the Municipal Council Shopian said, “We don’t have any space in the town to establish parking slots.”
However, he said that they were contemplating to move one of the taxi stands to the new bus stand.