Multi-level parking at Feroze Gandhi market remains a distant dream

Ludhiana: The wait for the much talked about project of a multi-level car parking in Feroze Gandhi market is still a distant dream for the city residents as the municipal corporation officials did not get the required sanctions from the town planning wing of the local bodies department. The officials are also getting the revised cost of the project prepared. It has been hanging fire since the announcement of a few most important projects under the Smart City Mission and due to chaos in the market the residents wanted this project to be completed on priority.

The officials had dropped the tenders for the project in January this year, but due to objections raised by certain senior officials in Chandigarh, the officials were supposed to revise the parking cost. The initial one was somewhere around Rs 65 crore. Similarly, this market was developed by the Ludhiana Improvement Trust (LIT) and to make any changes in the initial plans the civic body required the sanction of the LIT authorities. The latter after seeking objections from public had sent it to the town planning wing for sanction. There was one objection against this project.

The superintending engineer of bridges and road department and smart city projects, Rahul Gagneja, said, “The project is being reviewed in Chandigarh and once the objections will be removed, we will move ahead.”

The multi-level parking is proposed to have double basement and three floors. There will be a capacity to park 650 cars and more than 200 two-wheelers at one time.

Meanwhile, the visitors to the market as well as traders feel that the existing space is not enough. A visitor to the market, Gurdeep Singh said, “The market which is known as hub of commercial activities is without proper parking space. The existing parking lots remain jam packed and due to haphazard parking along roadsides the traffic flow usually remains disturbed.” He said parking was the basic requirement for this city and in case the authorities would not act fast on such projects, then what was the need of Smart City Mission.

The chairman of Feroze Gandhi Market Traders Association, Col (retd) Harjap Singh, said, “We have raised the issue of jam-packed parking lots with the authorities concerned several times, but these appeals fell on deaf ears.” He said the multi-level car parking should be there but hourly parking was mandatory even for the new system. He claimed that officials should understand the importance of this market and plan accordingly.