Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development Asiea Naqash informed the house that the government is extending suitable parking facilities at Jammu and Srinagar through respective Municipal Corporations and Development Authorities to address problems of traffic congestion in the twin capitals.Replying to a question by Ashok Khajuria in the upper house, the Minister said that multi-story parking facility at Panjthirthi would be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 28 crore by Jammu Municipal Corporation. She said, in this regard, all the formalities have been completed and the completion of this parking project about 240 vehicles would get parking service.The Minister said that one more such project worth Rs 15 crore for accommodating 150 vehicles at Peerkho has been approved under SAAP besides car parking for 22 vehicles has been completed near Mubarak Mandi Jammu adding that establishment of these parkings would definitely reduce traffic congestion in the old city.
The Minister further said that JDA has undertaken the project of multi-tier parking at General Bus stand Jammu at a cost of Rs 202 crore having capacity of 1312 cars and 177 scooters. She said the ERA is also constructing multi-level parking at City Chowk Jammu having parking capacity of 350 cars on JDA land. She said JDA has recently developed surface level parking near Maharaja Hari Singh Park having capacity of 233 cars. She said the JDA also intends to develop multi-level car parking at this site and a DPR of Rs 49 crore has been prepared by JDA in this regard.The Minister said that Srinagar Municipal Corporation is managing 10 parking places most of which have been outsourced. Besides, ERA is also constructing a multilevel parking at Old KMD Adda, she added.The Minister further stated that two projects including construction of Multilevel parking at Sheikhbagh and Old State Motor Garages at Lal Chowk Srinagar have been approved under SAAP component of AMRUT scheme with a total amount of Rs 55 crore, the work on which will be started soon.