Purasawalkam residents: No parking in front of gates, please

Visitors to markets and commercial establishments in Purasawalkam park their vehicles on  Thacker Street, often blocking access to houses. The call for a permanent solution to this problem grows louder

Thacker Street in Purasawalkam is increasingly becoming a battleground for parking spaces with residents and shoppers vying for the space beyond the shoulder lines — and the latter have an upper hand in this tussle. Also known as the edge line, the shoulder line signifies the end of the road. On Thacker Street though, this line signifies the beginning of parking — indiscriminate parking by shoppers.

For want of space elsewhere, shoppers visiting nearby markets and commercial establishments in Purasawalkam stray onto Thacker Street and park their vehicles, mostly two-wheelers. Residents of Thacker Street might have to park that odd bike or a car (often that of someone visiting them) and they would do so without blocking access to a house. In contrast, shoppers park their vehicles in every available space, even the space in front of gates (as the images illustrate) placing residents under “house arrest”, and this violation hits the nadir during weekends. Almost every family on Thacker Street has an “imprisonment” story to narrate. This situation not only blocks access to their homes but also poses a potential safety risk.

“We are facing a lot of problems because of the indiscriminate parking by shoppers,” said a long-time resident. “Sometimes, we cannot even get our cars out of our gates. It becomes a nightmare when there is an emergency, and when we need to leave quickly”.

The local traffic police are aware of the issue and have promised stricter enforcement of parking regulations on Thacker Street.

On Thacker Street, as in other interior residential streets, the space beyond the shoulder mark is reserved for residents to park their vehicles, provided they do it in an orderly manner, say traffic police sources, adding that it is never acceptable for shoppers or any outsiders to help themselves to that space.

“We need consistent action, not just temporary fixes. The police authorities must ensure that these spaces are reserved for their intended purpose as per the law,” said another resident of Thacker Street.

As the tension between residents and shoppers continues, the need for a long-term solution, one that would decisively check the “influx” of shoppers into Thacker Street, becomes ever more pressing.