Gurgaon
Information about Gurgaon city and places around Gurgaon India and NCR.

Gurgaon might be an upcoming modern and prosperous town of NCR, but it still lags behind in terms of civic amenities. Common issues like bad roads, insufficient power, and lack of public transport have already earned bad name for the millennium city. Scarcity of parking in public places like markets and malls is another grave issue affecting the quality of civic amenities that Gurgaon has.

If we take a look at some of the most popular and crowded markets of Gurgaon it will take no time and effort to conclude that parking is a major problem in the city. Sector 14 market is an old establishment in Gurgaon and thronged by thousands of shoppers every week. Known for the popular eatery Om Sweets and various other shops selling multiple things like electronics, furnishing, home necessities, etc, Sector 14 is located in the middle of a residential colony. However, there is no proper parking place where the shoppers can safely park their car. The parking that exists inside the market is very small and inadequate to support the large number of vehicles coming to Sector 14 everyday.

There is an illegal parking just adjacent to the market that runs on a vacant plot, but few people know about this and it mostly becomes full after a few vehicles only. In lack of proper parking place, owners start parking their vehicle in front of the houses thus overcrowding the lanes and making it tough for the pedestrians. Residents frequently complain of the run-away-parkers who park their vehicle in front of their gates or behind already parked vehicles that eventually obstructs the way.

Galleria market, located in DLF IV, Gurgaon, faces the similar difficulties when it comes to parking the vehicles. In fact, this location is the biggest victim of parking mafia. For all of us who have visited Galleria are aware of the parking area just in front of the market. But the fact is that these are not Government authorized parking and running illegally on vacant plots by unauthorized contractors. However, few citizens complain about such unauthorized parkings as there is no other choice left for them. But the matter of the fact is that illegal parkings are not safe for our vehicles.

Most of the malls in Gurgaon have underground parking but they are quite crowded on the weekends and there is a big queue or wait to reach the parking lot. They are also quite expensive on weekends. Due to these reasons many visitors prefer parking their vehicles in the service lane that causes frequent traffic jam and pedestrian woes.

Gurgaon administration needs to have a three-sided approach to handle the problem of parking in Gurgaon – equip the public places with sufficient and affordable parking, remove the parking mafia, and take actions like tow away for illegally parked vehicles.

With all the money and purchasing power that Gurgaon has, the city is lined with luxury vehicles like BMW, Rolls Royce, and Ferrari. But unfortunately the crumbling infrastructure of the city and basic civic amenities like proper parking place make the residents fret and sulk over these basic issues.

Reecha Kumar, for Gurgaonsite