Kalkaji fails to ward off its parking woes

New Delhi: Time moves slowly in the municipal wards that fall in the Kalkaji assembly constituencies. Most symbolic of how development has moved at glacial pace here are the two multilevel parking facilities that were completed in Kalkaji and New Friends Colony — after six years — and which have remained unused for a year now.
Once comprising urban areas, the assembly constituency now consists of the three municipal wards of Srinivaspuri, Kalkaji and Govindpuri, the existing fourth ward of East of Kailash having merged with the first two in the delimitation process.Together, they make for a mixed geography of urban hubs, unauthorised colonies and slum clusters.
The two big problems in the three wards are encroachment and parking. This is why the reluctance to open the two multilevel parking lots for public use defies logic. Commissioned in 2010, the two facilities were completed in June last year, but have remained locked since. “Parked cars make the roads hazardous for traffic here, but South Delhi Municipal Corporation has not utilised the newly created resource,” said a bemused BM Bakshi, president, New Friends Colony RWA. The Kalkaji complex was thrown open to the public for a brief period last year, but has remained inexplicably closed though it could have greatly eased road chaos in E Block, Kalkaji. Rajinder Singh Dhillon, a local resident, described the unused multilevel complexes as a “total wastage of tax payers’ money”.
Dhillon deplored a similar attitude on the part of SDMC regarding a new hospital in Kalkaji. “It took the civic body 14 years to build a hospital here but even after its inauguration it has not become fully functional in the same manner as the multilevel parking,” he said.
An equally big problem is encroachment and the residents are agitated about this. “There is no place on the roads for pedestrians,” complained Dhillon. “The footpaths have been taken over by hawkers and parked vehicles.” Even people otherwise appreciative of SDMC’s work sniffed at its inability to deal with encroachments on public spaces. Ajit Saini, a resident of Maharani Bagh, was happy that the entire Srinivaspuri ward had good infrastructure and the primary schools were in good shape, as were the community centres. But, he protested, the corporation has not dealt with the encroachments.
In Govindpuri, the main road and the internal lanes are constricted by the heavy presence of hawkers. “There are traffic jams throughout the day. The situation has remained unchanged for five years,” said Rajesh Singh, a Govindpuri resident. “The authorities are least bothered about the encroachments.”
Many residents reported that the colony lanes had not been carpeted since 2012 and waterlogging due to clogged drains is a regular feature in most areas in the monsoons. However, while a tour through Govindpuri ward still showed trash lying in open areas, complaints about irregular disposal of municipal waste have decreased after SDMC began using compactors in the removal of garbage.
Apart from impossible roads and parking woes, East of Kailash has its own twin problems of stray dogs and monkeys. With no help forthcoming from SDMC, the RWAs had to approach NGOS to sterilise the street dogs. They also appointed a monkey catcher on their own.
“It is the corporation’s duty to keep residents safe, but it doesn’t have a single monkey catcher on contract,” said Jasbir Chadda, president, East of Kailash B Block RWA.