Srinagar: Despite completion, the much-awaited multi-level car parking at the erstwhile State Motor Garages (SMG) is awaiting inauguration.
Currently, the shoppers, commuters, employees, local traders and others find it hard to park their vehicle as there is no other convenient designated parking at this busy site.
The parking has been designed to cater to rush of shoppers, employees and other people visiting city centre markets including Residency Road, Lambert Lane and offices.
Officials said work on the project has been completed and it is all set to be thrown open of public. “The official inauguration is awaited,” he added.
Local traders said that with the inauguration of this designated parking, hundreds of people would get immediate relief who otherwise have to struggle for looking up space for parking.
“In absence of parking, shopkeepers and our customers are facing hardships. Besides it, hundreds of people would be benefited once the SMC car parking is made functional,” said a group of local traders of Residency Road and Regal Chowk market.
This car parking facility constructed by Srinagar Development Authority (SDA) will accommodate 467 four-wheelers and 132 two-wheelers at a time.
“There is an urgent need for a designated car parking in the city centre as number of cars has increased manifold. Keeping this in view, speed of work on this project was increased and work was also carried out during night shifts on this project,” said an official.
The ramp-type parking has four floors and many features are likely to be added to make it a part of smart city project.
An official informed that this parking would charge reasonable rates from people.
“For four wheelers, Rs 20 will be charged for first hour and then Rs 10 for subsequent each hour. For two wheelers, charges would be Rs 10 irrespective of the time they are parked,” an official said.
Coming up at a project cost of Rs 26.92 crore, four floors of the multi-level parking was constructed with the help off funding under Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT), a centrally sponsored scheme aimed for developing city infrastructure.
“This parking facility would have more three upper stories to be used for commercial purpose that would be constructed with help of SDAs own resource. Those three stories would be constructed later on,” the official said.
The parking facility has two approach stairs, five elevators and one ramp.
“Surface parking has a capacity for 43 vehicles and in addition 150 two-wheelers can also be parked here. The site area for SMG parking is 13.01 kanals with proper entry and exit points from both approaches,” said an official.
He added that to make it part of smart-city, there are many more features in the pipeline to be added in it.
“Those features include the online information to people about the occupancy and vacancy of parking space, 24*7 real time parking surveillance, payments through cards and barcodes etc,” an official said.