Parking Woes and Traffic Congestion near Milagres Centenary Hall is a Nightmare!
Mangaluru: In this wedding season, commuters are the worst hit with illegal parking creating traffic snarls on most roads here. To add to the woes of commuters here, halls are lacking parking spaces, and one among them is Milagres Centenary Hall, on Falnir Road, Mangaluru. Especially, during wedding reception belonging to a particular community, where a large number of guests are invited, it’s always a mess near this said Hall, where the commuters and motorists are very much affected. This situation has been going on for months and years, and still no one has come to a solution, where this problem could be eased out. Everyone is playing a blame game- the management has their own reasons to tell, Security personnel blame on the guests for not obeying them, while others blame it on the Traffic police for not enforcing strict laws.
During every wedding season, or probably throughout the year, whenever there is a huge wedding or a mega event, especially during the daytime hours, the stretch of the road in front of Milagres Hall faces acute traffic congestion. And this year has been no different. The movement of public transport facilities, such as buses and auto-rickshaws, also get affected, apart from other private vehicles. Also facing problems are the ambulances who want to reach the hospitals or clinics in time, before the condition of the person gets worse.
But in spite of all these inconveniences and hardships faced by the commuters and motorists due to traffic parking near the Hall, no one from the hall management nor the Mangaluru City Corporation nor the Mangaluru City Police are least bothered about it. Apart from blaming these concerned authorities, the guests also need to be blamed, because in spite of various parking options provided by the Church Hall management, motorists still park their vehicles on either side of the road, thereby creating traffic chaos. The Milagres Hall has provided parking space behind Harsha Showroom, and also one huge parking space opposite to Hotel Moti Mahal (near Horse Riding Academy).
But unfortunately, people are lazy to walk a few distance from the wedding/even hall to these parking lots-instead park their vehicles on the road side, thereby creating a traffic woes. While the guests are trying to park their vehicles or trying to enter/exit out of the Hall, lead to traffic congestion and make motorists wait on the road for long. Illegally parked vehicles near wedding venues constrict road width leading to traffic jam. As the civic authorities and police do not take any action, it seems like citizens are forced to suffer. The reason I decided to write this report, having concerns towards patients being taken to hospital in ambulances, and when they are stuck in such traffic jams due to citizens ignorance, it is time that someone rectifies the problem.
Death does strike aboard the ambulance too but there is no way it is declared as such. Most ‘brought dead’ and ‘died en route’ cases happen where there is a time lapse in shifting the patient from one place to another due to traffic snarls, the bane of Mangaluru. And mainly due to the chaos on the road, especially during peak hours or traffic jams by illegal parking. Our roads are not ambulance friendly most often. Couple of days ago, on this stretch of Falnir Road, during afternoon hours, while a Muslim wedding celebration was going on at Milagres Centenary Hall, the traffic was backed up on both sides of the road, due to parking spree of the invitees for the wedding.
The sad part was that there were two ambulance stuck in this traffic jam three days ago- one ambulance “Nagu Magu” belonging to the government which transports pregnant women and sick infants was stuck on the stretch of the road coming from Falnir going towards Hampankatta/Lady Goschen Hospital; while the other ambulance of “KMC” was stuck going from Hampankatta towards Falnir. They were stranded for nearly 15-20 minutes due to this parking mess and Traffic chaos, all because of a freaking unplanned wedding without proper parking arrangements from the Hall management. Just imagine the fate of the patients inside the ambulances- probably the pregnant lady delivered in the ambulance due to the delay; or probably the patient in the other ambulance was hanging on to his/her death.
With such kind of situation facing due to parking pertaining to this hall, it is advisable that more security personnel need to be employed or arrangement should be made with the traffic police so that there is smooth flow of traffic on this stretch of the road. When a huge sum of rent is charged for the hall, it would be nice and appreciable that extra security and proper arrangements could be added to the existing ones, so that others won’t suffer just because someone is getting married that day? There should be a model where the hospital can coordinate with police till the patient in the stuck ambulance is reached to the hospital at the earliest.
It is every citizens responsibility to respect the value of life. Lack of awareness among motorists and general public about the seriousness of ambulance movement is disheartening. The police, hospitals, event halls and citizens have to chip in to solve this serious problem. Sometimes ambulances are used for sundry or personal purposes. That’s why instead of making way for it, many motorists try to jump traffic along with the ambulance. But there must be a solution where everyone understands responsibilities and acts accordingly. Hoping that the Parking Woes and Traffic Congestion will be looked into and eased out at the earliest, before someone dies in a ambulance because of this carelessness and ignorance. Period!