Attakulangara bypass to have pay and park'

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The City Corporation will start a pay and park facility on a 1.5km stretch between Killipalam and Attakulangara where lorries also can be parked, officials said. Around 22 traffic wardens will be deployed here to man the system, very similar to the one on MG Road. The fee would be levied from Wednesday, officials said. While cars and bikes would be levied the standard Rs 10 and Rs 2 per hour respectively, lorries would be charged Rs 50 per three hours, senior traffic officials said.

“Now haphazardly parked lorries cause huge traffic problems here. We hope to iron out the issue with the new wardens. In any case, paid parking on roads is a temporary arrangement that the local body does,” the official added. However, a section of local citizens are not happy with the new arrangements. “Roads should not be used for parking facilities. Parking for lorries, like an existing small one here, should be made at Erumkuzhy to accomodate truckers coming from states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka,” said Ajay Kumar, of Kuriyathy.

Not less than 200 trucks carrying groceries arrive daily at the local chalai market and park on Killipalam-Attakulangara stretch contributing to slow moving traffic. Apart from this are two textile outlets on the busy road which have inadequate parking space. Around 50 parking and no parking boards sponsored by Lions Club was handed over by Mayor V.K. Prasanth to City Police Commissi-oner H Venkatesh.