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29 Mar 2024, Edition - 3181, Friday

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Coimbatore

Growing congestion in Coimbatore

Covai Post Network

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With the apartment culture steadily accelerating, and the number of vehicle registration steeply increasing, Coimbatore’s concern about vehicle population explosion is not exactly misplaced.

Even as Coimbatore prepares to face the inevitable bumper-to-bumper traffic situation like in Bengaluru, the Mayor P. Rajkumar has assured that multilevel parking will come up at Cross Cut Road, DB Road and Town Hall in another month.

The apartment culture, and the presence of at least one two-wheeler and a four-wheeler in each of the flats, have been congesting the roads. The city which was once known for its free-flowing and orderly traffic, is slowly witnessing chaotic traffic moving at snail’s pace, like most metros.

According to Regional Transport Officer S. Udhayakumar, the number of vehicles (scooters and cars) registered in Peelamedu and Central Zone was 26,976 in 2014. It has increased to 32,995 this year. Statistics show that the number of motor vehicles has already exceeded the number of households in the city.

The city is now growing vertically instead of horizontally, and people prefer flats with all facilities available in a single space, said C.M.J. Raman, Secretary of Citizen’s Voice Club. “A lot more is desired in terms of improving road infrastructure in Mettupalayam and Avinashi Road. Earlier, during the tenure of the former Commissioner of Police, P. Shivanandi, there were dedicated lanes for two-wheelers, four-wheelers, and government buses. But the lane discipline is not being adhered to now,” he said.

“Construction of the ring road around the city should be expedited. The road would connect the highways so that vehicles heading from one district to another need not enter the city. Multilevel parking should be made mandatory in apartments since most of them park their vehicles on the road, disturbing the road users,” he pointed out.

S. Munusami, the Regional Transport Officer of Peelamedu, accepts that the number of vehicles is burgeoning at an average of 500 vehicles per day. Lamenting that he stays in a flat where there is very little space, he too agrees that multilevel parking like to those in the western countries will be very useful.

Festive season is when the traffic issues worsen. Most of the commercial areas in the city have narrow roads and inadequate parking space. If the Mayor’s words are anything to go by, then multilevel parking in the commercial areas will certainly be a respite. It will also ease the work of traffic police who impose fine and tow vehicles for inappropriate parking, said Mahesh Bandari, a businessman at Sukrawarpet.

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