Mysore/Mysuru: The row over parking of Mysore New Goods Terminal (MNGT) lorries in Taluk Agricultural Produce Cooperative Marketing Society (TAPCMS) premises has temporarily come to an end with Deputy Commissioner Rohini Sindhuri instructing the TAPCMS on Jodi Tenginamara Road in Bannimantap to allow lorries to park for three more months.

The TAPCMS had locked up its premises which was used as lorry stand, a couple of days ago, causing a lot of inconvenience for lorry owners. As the TAPCMS locked up the lorry stand gate, the MNGT lorry owners were forced to park their lorries along Jodi Tenginamara Road, which posed traffic problems on the road.

The TAPCMS had locked the lorry stand gate on Feb. 1 citing expiry of lease period. As there was no alternative space, the lorry owners were forced to park their lorries on both sides of Jodi Tenginamara Road, which created problems for free traffic movement on the road.

Lorry owners, in protest against the decision of the TAPCMS, had refused to take out the lorries already parked at the stand, even though the TAPCMS had agreed that it would allow them to move their lorries out of the stand. The lorry owners had also refused to transport food grains and other commodities that had arrived at MNGT, citing non-availability of parking space. The non-tranportation of food grains from MNGT had severely hurt delivery of PDS (Public Distribution System) food grains to shops and other designated points.

Taking note of the plight of lorry owners, the Divisional Manager of Food Corporation of India (FCI) wrote a letter to the DC seeking to issue a direction to TAPCMS to allow parking of lorries at its premises. Following the letter, DC Rohini Sindhuri directed the TAPCMS to continue allowing parking of lorries at the lorry stand in its premises for the next three months.

Railway Goods Shed Lorry Owners Association President Abdul Khader Shahid has thanked the DC for resolving the row.

Meanwhile, NR MLA Tanveer Sait, who is very much aware of the problem, has been trying hard to set up a lorry stand at the space adjacent to Gumnam Shavali Dargah, located close to MNGT as a permanent solution to the problem. However, his efforts seems to have hit a roadblock as the Railways has objected to the construction of the road leading to the open space near  Dargah.

The lorry owners opine that the problem could see a lasting solution if MLAs S.A. Ramdas and L. Nagendra and MP Pratap Simha too make efforts in finding a way out by discussing the issue with Railways. Noting that 75 percent of road development works near the Dargah has been completed, they said that once the road works are fully complete, the lorries can directly reach the Ring Road from MNGT, which will result in lesser vehicle density on Jodi Tenginamara Road.