Bus bays too turn parking lots

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a city ‘rich’ with ‘No Parking’ boards, traffic violations are nothing new. With the Traffic Police taking a lackadaisical approach, violators have started occupying bus bays too. The bus bay near LMS-Palayam stretch is mostly occupied by cars and autorickshaws.Making matters worse, buses are creating traffic blocks by stopping in the middle of the road.The roads developed under the City Road Improvement Project (CRIP) have specified areas for the bus bays. However, neither bus drivers nor commuters give any attention to the bus bays. Ignoring the boards displaying the sign of ‘Bus Stop’, the autos and cars use it as a parking lot.Traffic violations are common at bus bays in front of the SMV School too.The Traffic Police, so far, have not taken action against the errant.Though the Traffic Department is well aware of the situation, it just ignores the issue.Talking to Express, Traffic AC (North) Rajamohan said they would take action soon. “The strength of the Traffic Police is too small that we can post them only at important locations,” he explained. Traffic AC (South) Mohanan, however, said that it was not easy to take action against auto drivers, ‘’as unions would intervene.’’ Joy, driver of a low-floor AC bus operating in the city, too pointed at autos and cars parked at the bus bays as the reason for not using it.“The cases are similar at LMS and SMV School. It is impossible to drive to the bays as they are always occupied by autos and cars,” he said. Anil Kumar Pandala, vice-president of TRDCL, the concessionaire of CRIP, said that the bus bays have enough width to accommodate even the low-floor buses.“Since the road is 13 metres wide, the bus bay has almost 5 metres width.It can easily accommodate big buses.We have constructed the bay after undertaking trials,” he said.The TRDCL is now planning to construct bus shelters near the bays so that buses would stop there.The issue also points to the need for having more parking areas.Though most of the city roads developed under the CRIP are in good condition, the vehicles parked on both sides of the road are diminishing the advantage