Parking hits Metro work on Kanakapura Road

The under-construction 3.9-km Metro rail line connecting Banashankari and Doddakallasandra on Kanakapura Road has become a parking lot.

Despite the ‘caution’ boards, barricades and tapes, people are parking their vehicles inside the space where the construction work is going on. According to a contractor from the JMC Projects India Ltd, one of the contractors for the Bangalore Metro rail project in the area, the parking of the vehicles delays the construction work. “We cannot continue our work till the parked vehicles are removed,” a representative of the company said.

However, the traffic police do not seem to be taking sufficient measures to control this violation as autorickshaws, tempos, two-wheelers, cars and lorries can be seen parked throughout this stretch.

“We are booking cases on the vehicles illegally parked inside the barricades. There are easily over fifteen such violations everyday,” Yathiraj, Sub-Inspector, Kumaraswamy traffic police station, told Express.

He also said that it is not possible to actually catch hold of all violators as there are traffic issues to take care of too. “The stretch is too narrow. So there is very little that we can do during the peak hours,” he stated.

Vehicles can be seen parked even where there are barricades erected throughout the stretch. An official of the contractor’s company said, “There are a lot of shops on this stretch. The road here is also not wide, so there is no other place for the public to keep their vehicles.”

A tempo driver Inayaz Khan said that he has been parking his vehicle everyday at the same spot for the last one month. “No one stops us from parking here,” he said and added, “Most people working on this part of Kanakapura Road park here.”

S S Khandre, BBMP’s PRO, said, that regulating the parking of vehicles in this area has to be looked after      by the Metro and the traffic police. “We have already handed over the land for the construction. The space under the bridge has not been identified for parking. It is not in our scope,” he said.

The Chief Engineer at this region of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited refused to comment on the issue.