Concept of Parking Study in Kurukshetra

Kurukshetra is one of the important cities of Haryana known for its religious and historical importance. It is a mid-sized city having population of about 0.98 lac. Transportation is the key infrastructure of a country. As road transportation gives personal mobility to the person, the vehicle ownership rate has increased at a fast rate. This increase in the number of vehicles has given birth to the problem of parking. The availability of less space in urban areas has increased demand for parking space, especially in shopping centers, public places and office complexes. It also has an impact on transportation development. With the growing population of motor vehicles, the problem of parking has assumed serious proportions in the town. Shortage of parking spaces forces drivers to park their vehicles on the road which further creates lot of problems like congestion, jams, accidents and also reduces effective road width. The objective of this study is to identify the current parking supply and parking demand in Kurukshetra city. The study consists of parking usage survey using fixed period sampling method. It is found that the utilization percentage of on-the-road parking space varies from 126 to 309 percent of all the ten sites considered in the study. The average utilization factor is 214%. At present the demand for parking exceeds the parking space available on the roads for all the ten parking sites. Separate parking lots, in addition to properly marked on-the-road parking bays, need to be provided on the available spaces close to the studied areas to address the problem of parking.