Crunched for space

Think Colaba and a pleasing visual of cafes, tourists and shopping comes to mind. But if you are a Colaba resident, well then, lack of parking space, blatant violations and scuffles are what you wake up to every day.

Colaba residents belonging to Pasta Lane numbers 3 and 4 are at their wits' end as they struggle not just for a parking spot—the real task is to 'not' enter the parking 'spot' blocked by others.

Gawasji Jahangir Road, which connects lanes 3 and 4 is in a maddening state as both sides of these roads are used for parking cars. The buildings in these lanes, being quite old, do not have sufficient parking spaces for all the residents. Some residents have shared the concern that a lot of people park their bikes in such a way that it eats up the space meant for a four-wheeler.

*Tanveer Singh, a resident, shares, "It gets crazy in the evening; there so many cars parked that moving even one car at a time becomes tricky. Moreover, these cars are usually driven by the chauffeurs who are quite rowdy, which makes talking difficult, leave alone reasoning with them."

These luxurious cars like those of Audi and Mercedes are very long and hence, consume more space. Add to that, old junk bikes are used to block parking spaces. If the authorities look in to the registration and paper work, they are likely to not find any.

Suarabh Mehrotra, who frequents these lanes, says, "The situation is really bad as dealing with the people who block the space is a major task. I've had tiffs with them couple of times and it is horrible as they just won't let anyone park. They have also tied two bikes together so that no one would move them."

*Name changed on request