To decongest the roads and prevent roadside parking, the J&K administration is planning to construct over 14 surface and sub-basement parking spaces and 4 more multilevel parking lots in different parts of Srinagar.
According to the proposal, the parking spaces will accommodate more than 3500 vehicles and these projects will be accomplished in the next ten years in the city. The proposal claims that Srinagar has witnessed a 7-8 percent increase in vehicular traffic during the last decadeand it will increase further in the coming years. As a result, the demand for parking spaces is constantly growing, the proposal says.
The sites where parking spaces are proposed by the government include Pantha Chowk (with a capacity to accommodate 300 vehicles), Nowgam Railway Station (400 vehicles), Dalgate(200 vehicles), Hazratbal(200 vehicles), Mughal Gardens (400 vehicles), Syed Mansoor(200 vehicles) and Rambagh(100 vehicles).
Similarly, sub-surface parking places with green turfs are proposed at Polo view (300 vehicles) and at Tattoo Ground (500 vehicles). At Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Soura, sub-surface parking garages have been proposed that would accommodate 200 vehicles, atKhanyar(100 vehicles), Nowhatta(200 vehicles) and at Western Foreshore Road of Dal and Nigeen Lake (500 vehicles).
According to the Master Plan, in the absence of adequate organized parking space and facilities, valuable road space is being used for vehicular parking in the city causing road congestions and resulting in frequent traffic jams.
Apart from the threeexisting multilevel parking lots in Srinagar which are under construction and will be completed by December 2020, four more locations have been identified for the development of multilevel parking in Srinagar. These multi-level parking lots will take care of both existing on-street parking as well as future demand of the core areas.
The proposed sites for new multilevel lots at Shaheed Gunj that will accommodate 400 vehicles, 200 vehicles at Badamwari, 400 vehicles near Sara City Centre and 300 vehicles at Srinagar International Airport.