Sidco's parking regulation efforts turn futile in Guindy

Chennai: The Small Industries Development Corporation (Sidco) the nodal agency for maintaining industrial estate regions, has given a nod to a Bengaluru-based agency to regulate parking. The project was said to be implemented from October 15 and those parking their trucks and other heavy vehicles in haphazard manner in the Guindy Industrial Estate to be taken to task. This is yet to happen, though.

According to a senior Sidco official, separate space has been allotted in the estate for the truck drivers and owners to station their vehicles and the agency would collect minimum fare. Heavy vehicles that are used to ferry goods to the small scale industries in the estate have no allotted space--the reason they station it on the main roads, blocking traffic.

Poomagal Main Road, Parthasarathy Koil Street and the lane behind Olympia Tech Park are among the few roads where the trucks are stationed. While traffic is a pressing problem, pedestrians also complained of experiencing misbehaviour from the drivers. "The road adjoining Olympia Tech Park is arterial, as it leads to Porur and Poonamallee. The width of the road is downsized due to the haphazard parking of vehicles," said P Krishnan, a motorist.

"Irregular parking of the vehicles is just a mole in the mountain of problems faced by the people in the estate. Does Sidco have an answer for the improper waste management and absence of street lights? Safety is a huge problem; walking on these lanes is a huge risk," said G Saritha, a resident of Poomagal Main Road.

Even though the project is implemented at least on paper, there seems to be no change. Heavy vehicles continue to be parked in the localities, thus raising a question of the implementation. A truck driver said that he was not told about the proposal yet. "

There are a lot of empty plots in the estate area that are used as mere garbage dumps. If there is a solution for the problem, it has not reached us yet," said Tamilarasan P, a driver. Sidco officials were unavailable for comment, despite calling multiple times. The details about the parking fees and the tenure details remain unknown.

It may be noted that Deccan Chronicle had submitted many written petitions to the top officials of Sidco who promised to solve the drastic civic problems in the estate.