Whither parking space?

If you live in Chennai or any other metro in India, you will know that finding parking space in the city is the most difficult task that you can imagine. I live in central Chennai and I constantly see changes around my neighbourhood, be it houses turned into flats or apartments or houses converted into commercial spaces. Whatever be the case, what is missing is the space for parking vehicles near the building.

It is not just residential buildings or office complexes, even new schools, hotels and restaurants are opened in prime locations, without any thought or space given for parking vehicles. They seemed to be concerned only about the destination, the don't care about the journey to the destination. It would be a swanky new boutique where all the women arrive in chauffeur driven cars but you will only see three or four car parking spots, all of which would have been occupied by the owners of the building. If you need examples of such shops, just go around Alwarpet, you can check out Tulsi Silks or Rangacharis or Rasi or even jewellery shops like Khazana or NAC which specialise in platinum and diamond jewellery.

I recently saw a new cafe ( I am always delighted to see new cafes) that was opened near  Hotel Savera. I wondered at the choice of the location and the access to the cafe. The cafe, a well known chain, is located right outside the exit gate of the hotel. I wondered whether it was put there to attract those who wish to go to a hotel but just do not want to waste time waiting for their coffee in a five star hotel lobby. It has no parking space other than whatever is available on the already narrow, busy road where it is located. So I wondered about the clientele this cafe was attracting. There was only space enough for two-wheelers to be parked in front of the cafe. So who are they attracting, students who wish to impress their girlfriends or overworked office goers who want to take a coffee break or chauffeur driven people who don't have to think about where to park their cars.

How many people visiting a cafe that prices its coffees at Rs. 75 a cup will be driving there in their two wheelers? This makes me wish we had parking assistants in almost every main road of the city. We must be able to hire these assistants to get our cars parked and be saved from the head ache of finding a spot in the scorching Chennai heat. I think this should be a good business, 'Any time Parking Service' (APS)  for Chennai. There is no point in waiting for parking lots to appear, so all you need is a clever, skilled driver who can park your vehicle in front of unsuspecting individual homes or apartments or even abandoned school compounds. Actually a skilled driver is the most sought after job in Chennai, second only to a good domestic help.