Residents of the Valley will get some relief from congestion and traffic jams by June next year as the commercial hub of Lal Chowk will get its first multi-parking facility.
The parking facility is being constructed by Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) at a cost of Rs 26.75 crore.
This will be the first-of-its-kind multi-storeyed mechanised parking facility in the state which is being constructed at the Kashmir Motor Drivers Association (KMDA) bus stand.
The project, which received much hype from the former government, missed its first deadline on February 23, 2015, while entering into its third year of construction due to the 2014 floods. However, the officials from (ERA) said the parking space would be ready by June 2016.
“We faced problems after floods as the labourers left and the machinery was under water. But hopefully it will be ready by June 2016 as we are getting the technical support material from China which has been dispatched from there and we will be getting it in a week’s time,” said Director, ERA, Malik Bashaarat.
After getting approved by the former government, the work on the project was started on April 11, 2013. Spread over 3,472 sq meters, the contract is being implemented by Simplex Projects Limited and funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Traffic congestion is becoming one of the biggest problems in Srinagar as there are just three dozen parking slots for nearly three lakh registered vehicles in the Valley.
The officials said they had proposed another multi-level parking slot near Residency Road, Press Colony, to improve traffic mechanism in Srinagar.
“The multi-level parking lot will accommodate nearly 288 vehicles simultaneously and it will help in reducing congestion on the roads of commercial hub. We have proposed another multi-level parking lot at Press Colony, Srinagar,” the ERA official said.