By: Aabid Hameed
Kulgam: With no space available for parking in South Kashmir’s Kulgam town, the people are finding it hard to travel through the market.
According to locals, there is no space available for parking for the private vehicles and visitors who visit the town on daily basis said that they face inconvenience while parking their vehicles.
In absence of parking space, we are forced to park our vehicles outside town and then have to reach the town on foot as and whenever we park vehicles in the town, these are seized by authorities, they said.
Mukhtar Ahmad, a local resident said that Kulgam town witnesses heavy rush of visitors throughout the day and no parking space adds to the woes of people.
“At several places, haphazard parking of vehicles hampers traffic movement. Some shopkeepers even park their vehicles in markets, this also leads to traffic jams and causes inconvenience,” he said. “It is high time that the concerned authorities wake up from slumber and take steps to avoid traffic mess in the area.” he said.
He added that vendors and shopkeepers occupy the pathways due to which pedestrians are forced to walk on the already narrow roads and it takes half an hour to cover just a few hundred meters. “It becomes very difficult for patients to reach the hospital in case of emergency,” he added.
Mohammad Ashraf another resident said that he parks his vehicle one kilometer away from the town as there is no space available in the market.
“Due to unavailability of parking space, many people often park their vehicles on road, due to which town often witnesses heavy traffic jams,” he said.
A member of the traders association Kulgam said that they have already raised this issue several times with the concerned authorities but they are not taking it seriously.
He said that whenever, they apprise the concerned authorities they are assured that matter will be redressed but these assurances have remained confined to lip service only.
An official of the district administration said that three kanal of land for parking space has been identified and very soon this issue will get redressed.
