Punjab and Haryana HC orders green paver blocks for parking facility near court
The court observed that the green pavers are meant to allow water to percolate down to replenish groundwater and therefore, are more beneficial and ecofriendly as compared to pavements or roads.
The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed Chandigarh administration to lay green paver blocks in a green belt area near the high court complex to facilitate parking of vehicles coming to the court.
“This court is of the view that the suggestion made by this court, on an earlier occasion, for restoration of green cover and simultaneously laying green pavers for parking was not only reasonable but a step towards sustained development,” the bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sumeet Goel observed while issuing the directions and rejecting UT’s assertions that it was a green belt and thus can’t be converted into a parking lot.
The bench asserted that between 9 am and noon and during post-lunch session from 2 pm to 4.30 pm, the HC campus experiences extreme congestion due to various bottlenecks, which are aggravated by the fact that the complex and its surrounding areas have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.
A kutcha parking is already functional at the site where nearly 200-300 cars can be accommodated. At one point of time, the Bar body had even started collecting fees from visitors for parking. But the same was stopped by the HC through an order last year. The green belt has a few trees and thick bushes towards the Sukhna Lake road end. It was being used as parking space for nearly five years now.
The court observed that the green pavers are meant to allow water to percolate down to replenish groundwater and therefore, are more beneficial and ecofriendly as compared to pavements or roads.
It further directed that adequate traffic personnel be deployed during court hours to regulate and manage the flow of traffic.
The bench was hearing a 2023 public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Vinod Dhaterwal, an office-bearer of the high court employees’ association, demanding infrastructure development of the HC complex in the wake of increasing traffic congestion, space crunch and implementation of a holistic development plan. The plan, conceptualised more than a decade back, envisages setting up of multi-storey buildings to cater to the requirement of additional space at the high court complex. However, the plan had to be put on hold as the Capitol Complex was declared a World Heritage site in 2016.
There is an extreme shortage of parking space at high court. On any given hour, about 3,000-4,000 four-wheelers visit the HC out of which at least 2,000, if not more, are permanently parked. The existing underground multi-level parking which has three tiers can accommodate only 600 four-wheelers while the remaining vehicles are parked in the open parking areas.