The issue of a lack of parking space in Gelephu Thromde has been put to rest, at least for now. The old truck parking near the vegetable shed was redeveloped into parking space for taxis and private vehicles. The thromde office started the redevelopment works earlier this year after the taxi drivers raised concerns about parking space crunch. The new parking space can accommodate 30 vehicles.
The Information and Communications Minister inaugurated the parking space coinciding with the National Day Celebrations last week.
“We had been encountering problem with parking space due to the increasing number of vehicles every year. Until this year, the maximum number of taxis we had in Gelephu was up to 250. Now, we have 576 taxis. In addition, taxis from other districts also come here and as a result we had to park our taxis in private parking spaces,” said Neykhor, a member of Gelephu Taxi Association.
“There were a few designated taxi parking lots in the town. But those were not enough because of the increasing number of taxis every year. We are grateful to the thromde for allotting the new parking space,” said Tshering Dorji, a taxi driver in Gelephu.
Although gratified with the new parking lot, some drivers seem to have an issue with the structure of the parking lot. They said the parking area which is designed to fit vehicles in rows is inconvenient. In the new parking lot, taxis have to wait for their turn to get passengers and exit.
“It would have been convenient if they designed it two-way or as angle parking so that we can leave easily during emergency situations. In the current design, taxis which are parked in the middle of the lot cannot leave if there they need to leave urgently,” said Karma Sonam, a taxi driver in Gelephu.
“The tshogpa made three-lane system which makes it difficult for those who have parked in the middle to exit until the vehicles parked in front of them leave,” added Tshering Dorji, another taxi driver in the southern bordering town.
However, the Gelephu Thromde office said that the taxi parking lot was designed as per the recommendation from the Taxi Tshogpa.
The Thromde carried out the redevelopment works by spending Nu 17 M funded by the government. The redevelopment works include installing street light, construction of footpath, and drainage system and landscaping among others.
Karma Wangdi, Sarpang
Edited by Phub Gyem
