The subject of pay and park on D. Devaraj Urs Road here is likely to be discussed in the ensuing Council meeting of the Mysore City Corporation (MCC) as Mayor Shivakumar, who will be chairing the meeting, is keen on introducing paid parking in the busy commercial hub for easing the parking crisis.
The meeting which was earlier scheduled on November 28 has been put off to December 8. A clarity on the parking is expected to emerge during the December 8 meeting.
The Mayor, who spoke to The Hindu, said the subject is coming up for discussion in the council meeting and added that he was confident of getting a consensus on the issue for introducing “parking management” on the road.
Although the MCC Council had approved the pay and park proposal a decade ago, the initiative has not been introduced even today in the absence of consensus and resistance from a section of the business community. Ten years ago, the MCC council passed a resolution introducing pay and parking but it was not introduced until now despite knowing the parking woes on the road.
The busy road stretch has bays where about 200 cars can be parked. However, about 100 cars, purportedly belonging to shop owners and those running businesses in the surrounding locality, are always found parked there during business hours, denying rightful parking space for shoppers and tourists.
The issue came up for a discussion when the Mayor recently attended a programme hosted by the trade and business community. The Mayor had claimed that the business community was convinced of the need for such an initiative as it would serve a “win-win” situation for both the traders and shoppers if paid parking was introduced.
Also, there have been instances of elected representatives expressing their reservations on bringing in pay and park, arguing that it would cause unnecessary burden on the public. In fact, it is the public who are being put to hardships because of the delay in taking decisions on addressing the parking problem on the road, according to locals and stakeholders of the tourism industry.
A nominal fee for parking with better management of the initiative can help in easing the crisis to a little extent since even the traffic police too have tough time in easing congestion on the road during weekends, holidays when cars are parked outside the bay awaiting space for parking, said Ramesh, a resident of Kuvempunagar.