No parking on Ernakulam Broadway soon

Kochi: The Kochi City Police is planning to make the Ernakulam Broadway region a ‘No parking’ zone following complaints that narrow roads in the market are further getting congested due to “illegal” parking of two-wheelers.

Also all the shops in the market should ensure wiring to be fool-proof and do re-wiring if necessary in a month’s time. The decision was taken in a meet convened by Commissioner S. Surendran with merchants of Broadway in the wake of yet another fire mishap there the other day.

Most of the two-wheelers belong to staff of various shops and are parked in multiple rows along the road. The same has resulted in impediment of vehicular flow. The fire tenders, initially, couldn’t make way to the shop that was gutted due to illegal parking on Monday morning.

“We’ve given them a month’s time so as to identify a suitable parking space near-by. After that we’ll make the area a strict No-parking Zone,” Surendran said.

The commissioner stressed the need for taking adequate fire safety measures in commercial buildings.

“The owners of malls, theatres, textile shops among others should ensure that the wiring is fool-proof and install security systems like ELCB if necessary.

Re-wiring should be done in old buildings without delay. Fire alarms should be set up in all buildings. All institutions should keep sketches of fire hydrants ready and frequently check condition of fire extinguishers,” the commissioner said.

Another issue pointed out was the owners resorting to sealing of top portion of buildings, terraces and emergency exists to convert them as go-downs.

 “This prevents spraying of water from fire tenders upon a mishap. The owners should remove such illegal construction on a war-footing. Action will be taken against those who fail to carry out the direction,” the officer said.

“Most of the shops are located in old buildings. The power overload has gone up several times. Hence the officer asked us to do re-wiring which we’ll be taking up on a voluntary basis,” said Kerala Merchant Chamber of Commerce General Secretary Muhammed Sageer.

Officials of the Kerala Fire Force and representatives of the Merchants Associations participated in the meet.