Parking slots need of the hour

With the commuters facing difficulties while parking their vehicles in Srinagar and other parts of Jammu and Kashmir, there is a dire need to come up with more parking slots to lessen the burden on the commuters. However, the government has constituted a committee led by the Inspector General of Police, (Traffic), J&K for identification of sites and areas for developing parking lots in Jammu and Srinagar cities. The committee has been asked to identify suitable areas and sites for the development of parking lots at both places at Jammu & Srinagar city, besides ensuring that the land identified is encumbrance-free and suitable for the purpose. It will also ensure strict compliance to all rules, procedure, guidelines issued by the Government from time to time and to coordinate with concerned line departments and organizations in the Union territory of Jammu & Kashmir. The committee has been asked to submit the report within a period of one month. However, there is a need to take all the stakeholders like traders, shopkeepers and others on the board to get suggestions, which will prove fruitful for their businesses as well. It has been observed that the vehicles are not being allowed to stop in the markets, which is not only pushing the shoppers to the wall but also leading to the losses to the business community as well. Therefore, the steps at this juncture should be taken in the right direction so that the issue of parking slots can be resolved once for all and the business community as well as the commuters would not face hardships.