Published On : Sat, Mar 28th, 2015

Dhantoli : Violation of parking space,Hospitals under HC scanner

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Invading public space ..Road illegally blocked by placing cones on busy road opposite Sushrut Hospital in Ramdaspeth.

File Pic: Invading public space ..Road illegally blocked by placing cones on busy road opposite Sushrut Hospital in Ramdaspeth.

Nagpur: Dhantoli area has turned into a hub for hospital industry. A majority of the hospitals situated in the area are blatantly violating parking norms, thus contributing to traffic hazards in the locality. Taking serious cognisance of the grim situation, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court on Friday asked the Nagpur Municipal Corporation to inspect these hospitals and submit a report to the court by April 24.

The directives were issued by the court while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed in this regard by the president of Dhantoli Nagrik Mandal Vilas Lothe. As per law, every building should have a dedicated parking space. The management of many hospitals in Dhantoli had shown parking places in their buildings at the time of getting their building plans sanctioned by the NMC. The buildings are also constructed accordingly.

However, in reality, the places marked for parking are being used for other purposes, claims the PIL. In most hospitals, the parking space is being used as welcome or reception centre, while other hospitals have converted the space into inquiry sections or registration department or even OPD. The PIL states that some of the hospitals are using the parking space to accommodate relatives of out station patients. Whatever space is left is being used by the hospital management and employees to park their vehicles, claims the PIL.

Because of this, visitors of patients have to park their vehicles on the road. This leads to traffic problems in the area. The already narrow lanes of Dhantoli have become congested and choked because of haphazard parking, hindering traffic movement on the lanes.

The residents of the area too are facing tremendous inconvenience due to the congestion of lanes. Illegal parking has been the cause of many accidents in the past. In cases of emergencies and in accident cases, patients cannot reach hospital on time due to the choked roads, posing great risk to the lives of patients, states the PIL.

The NMC had issued notices to all these hospitals in the year 2012. But no action has been taken so far. The court has now asked the NMC to prepare a renewed list of all hospitals violating parking norms in their establishments and submit it to the high court. The petitioner is being represented by Adv Ashutosh Dharmadhikari, while the NMC is being represented by Adv S K Mishra.