<BODY> There is a lot of merit in what Jain says. Also, what Pasumai Thayagam says is not really new. A proposal to build a car park in or near the park in question was raised even by the Government in power in the State between 1996-2001 (the party in power then, the DMK, is a political ally of Pasumai Thayagam's founding party now, in the Indian federal government). The parking lot plan was resisted by some environmentalists and the media. There was not much political support for such a stance six years ago, and it was seen as a fringe demand by elitist environmentalists who were opposed to development.  There are many non-controversial sites available to provide car parking at whatver user fee. As I have mentioned earlier on this list, the Railway Ministry of India is sitting on a lot of property, including the underutilised stations of the Mass Rapid Transit System between Beach and Thiruvanmiyur and the suburban lines. Pasumai Thayagam (PT) is ideally placed to use its excellent equation with the Union Minister of State for Railways, Mr.Velu (who belongs to the party that founded Pasumai Thayagam), to demonstrate the ideal use of rail-private vehicle integration through park and ride. PT must first work to reform the way the railway park and ride system works. It has unclean, unsafe and antiquated park and ride facilities for motorised two wheelers and bicycles. Can these be improved? Can there be tiered, clean, safe and accountable systems in the railway stations? Will PT campaign to get existing public buses to at least drive through these station complexes wherever feasible ? Anant ----- Original Message -----   From: Jain Alok <ajain@kcrc.com> Date: Monday, March 13, 2006 9:16 am Subject: [sustran] Re: Chennai: NGO criticises proposal for constructionofmulti-storeyed parking lots > It is highly unlikely that car users in Chennai can be made to shift > immediately to public transport. This is the loud minority and have > almost always gotten their way (it may be wrong but it's a fact) in > India. But instead of opposing the car-parks, why shouldn't one > ask for: > > - high parking charges with all of it going towards improvement of > public transport > - corresponding pedestrianisation, BRT, MRT or whatever is most > suitable(I remember when Singapore launched Area Licensing, they built > multi-story car parks on the periphery of the cordon and it worked > quitewell > - removal of grade-level parkings and converting these lots into > publicspaces > > Alok > > -----Original Message----- > From: arul rathinam [arulgreen@yahoo.com] > Sent: Sunday, March 12, 2006 6:11 PM > To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport > Subject: [sustran] Chennai: NGO criticises proposal for construction > ofmulti-storeyed parking lots > > NGO criticises proposal for construction of > multi-storeyed parking lots > > > > "KCRC - Better connections; better services" > > This email and any attachment to it may contain confidential or > proprietary information that are intended solely for the person / > entity to whom it was originally addressed. If you are not the > intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distributing or any > action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is > prohibited and may be unlawful. > > Internet communications cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error- > free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, arrive > late or contain viruses. The sender therefore does not accept > liability for any errors or omissions in the context of this > message which arise as a result of transmission over the Internet. > > No opinions contained herein shall be construed as being a formal > disclosure or commitment of the Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation > unless specifically so stated. > > > ================================================================ > SUSTRAN-DISCUSS is a forum devoted to discussion of people- > centred, equitable and sustainable transport with a focus on > developing countries (the 'Global South'). Because of the history > of the list, the main focus is on urban transport policy in Asia. > </BODY>