Trucks left without parking as GMRL leases Sec 33 land

Hundred acres for the Transport Nagar near Hero Honda Chowk, so far Gurugram’s only dedicated parking lot for large and medium goods vehicles, was allotted 2002.

Transporters and trucker associations on Monday alleged that they were being forced to park their vehicles on the road with a portion of land in Transport Nagar, Sector 33, having been leased to the Gurugram Metro Rail Limited (GMRL). They further said that they were not consulted before the decision was made.

Trucks parked in Transport Nagar last year. (HT Archive)

Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) has leased 5.23 hectares of the Transport Nagar land to GMRL for five years as a temporary facility where large precast concrete structures, such as segments of bridges or elevated metro lines, can be constructed. “The lease agreement can be extended as per the requirements for Metro Project in Old Gurugram,” sub divisional engineer Gian Chand Saini said.

Hundred acres for the Transport Nagar near Hero Honda Chowk, so far Gurugram’s only dedicated parking lot for large and medium goods vehicles, was allotted 2002. Though it is being used to park, it has remained barren with the plan to develop the hub still waiting for approval. Since then, large parts of the land have seen encroachments.

Now, transport unions have alleged that no alternative spot was identified for truckers to park their vehicles before leasing out the land to GMRL. “It is astonishing that truckers have been left on their own to find private parking solutions. Logistical support is key to nation-building, however, the government offers us little support when it comes to affordable parking. The only Transport Nagar has never been fully developed,” said Ashok Bansal, member of Car Carriers Association in Gurugram.

They further said that no prior consultations were conducted beforehand. “Without a designated parking space, our heavy commercial vehicles will be forced onto public roads, leading to immediate harassment and extortion by enforcement agencies and compounding the traffic chaos in Gurugram,” said Dr Harish Sabharwal, president of All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC).

Another transporter, asking not to be named, said they had been forced to pay hefty challans on their commercially owned vehicles for illegally parking them on expressways and busy city stretches. “Every week, each of my commercial vehicles gets fined. Officials in district administration don’t pay heed to our repeated requests to find an alternate spot for offloading goods. This is putting an excessive burden on us,” he said.

According to officials at HSVP, the land of around 100 acres for Transport Nagar in Sector 33, which was identified in 2002 by the then government, has since been allotted in batches. “Subsequent governments failed to provide a permanent site where the Transport Nagar would be built. With pressure from transporters, an extensive survey was conducted by HSVP in 2021 to enlist all large and medium transporters in the city. It was recommended by HSVP that four Transport Nagars be opened in the city. None of which formulated on ground and remained in paper,” said Hukumchand Sharma, president of Gurugram Transporter Welfare Association.

According to an HSVP official, a tender was floated in this regard a few years ago. However, since the site plan was not approved at a departmental level, the plan to develop a dedicated centralised hub for logistics and transportation was stalled back then. “We were not in a position to carry out demarcation on the allotted land for the Transport Nagar project. Without an approved plan, no groundwork or boundary marking can legally begin,” said Vijay Kumar, sub-division engineer at HSVP’s Division 6, under which Transport Nagar project falls.

HSVP officials declined to comment on questions of future projects to build Transport Nagars in the city. When asked about whether the transport associations were consulted before handing over the land to HSVP, Saini said, “Our job is to focus on the development of the city. It is up to district administration to find alternate parking solutions for truckers.”

Transporters alleged that the government land was rented for Metro construction for cheaper rates and that the decision contradicted the need for planned urban management and sustainable logistics infrastructure. “Heavy commercial goods vehicles need dedicated parking for the safety of commuters and to reduce traffic jams in the city. There are no systemic offloading stations in the city for medium and small transporters. We will raise the issue to build four Transport Nagars during the next assembly session,” said Mukesh Sharma, member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Gurugram, who said that the existing parking mess in the city has been fuelled by the removal of truckers from Transport Nagar.