By Arun Pratap Singh
Dehradun, 14 Sep: It may be recalled that some days ago, newly appointed District Magistrate of Dehradun, Savin Bansal had conducted a surprise inspection of Nagar Nigam offices where he had directed the Nagar Nigam officials to submit a proposal for mechanised automated parking facility at Nagar Nigam grounds. Today he held a meeting in this respect and discussed setting up of mechanised automated parking facilities in several appropriate locations in Dehradun.
It may further be recalled that Dharampur MLA and former two time Mayor of Dehradun, Vinod Chamoli had raised objection to this proposal of the DM on two counts. Chamoli had asserted that the policy decisions regarding Nagar Nigam affairs should be left to the elected Nagar Nigam Board only and that the DM should not meddle into them and should focus on his primary mandate as the DM. In addition, Chamoli had also reminded that the Nagar Nigam Building is a heritage building and should not be tampered with.
Though the DM has decided to carry forward his plan to explore setting up mechanised automated parking facilities and held a meeting today in this respect, he has made it clear in no terms that the action plan in this respect will be prepared in consultation with the public and the public representatives only.
In this respect, a joint meeting was held in the Municipal Corporation offices with the line departments under the chairmanship of District Magistrate Savin Bansal regarding strengthening of parking facilities in the city. In the meeting, Bansal made it clear that further action plan will be prepared in this direction only after the suggestions of the public and the opinion of the respected public representatives.
In the meeting, the District Magistrate directed to explore possibilities to improve one of the major problems which is traffic and parking systems in Dehradun city. The DM directed the departments concerned to prepare a proposal for the sites where work can be started immediately so that the proposal can be submitted to the government on time. Officials shared with him that several places in the city have been identified for parking. The District Magistrate directed that the departments concerned should work in coordination while getting suggestions from the departmental officers. Automated mechanical parking is an assembled parking system, which can be shifted from one place to another and its cost is much less than permanent construction.
Chief Municipal Commissioner Municipal Corporation Gaurav Kumar, Chief Development Officer Abhinav Shah, City Magistrate Pratyush Singh, Superintendent of Police Traffic Mukesh Kumar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner Gopal Ram Binwal, Superintendent Engineer PWD Amit, Additional Engineer PWD Jitendra Kumar Tripathi, Additional Engineer NH Doiwala Navneet Pandey, Additional Engineer UPCL Gaurav Saklani, Additional Engineer MDDA Atul Gupta, SDO UPCL Bablu Singh and officers of concerned departments were present in the meeting.
