Traffic snarls caused by illegal parking in the steel city’s biggest commercial hub Sakchi should be a thing of the past by March, East Singhbhum SSP Anoop Birtharay and Tata Steel utilities subsidiary Jusco has said.

A source in Jusco’s engineering wing said a 9,000sqm parking space was coming up along the Sakchi-Kalimati Road stretch from near JNAC roundabout till the old private bus terminus (near Jamshedpur Eye Hospital). It will be operational before Founders’ Day on March 3, he added.

A senior Jusco official said the parking bay was being built by dismantling abandoned company quarters across a sprawling 9,000sqm area. “It can accommodate more than 200 cars, 150 two-wheelers and 100 three-wheelers (read auto-rickshaws). We will construct the parking bay with boundary walls, high-mast lights, separate areas earmarked for various vehicles and other amenities and hand it over to JNAC for maintenance. We will have it ready before Founder’s Day on March 3,” the official said.

SSP Birtharay, while admitting illegal parking alongside roads the biggest reason for Sakchi’s traffic mayhemi, added the new parking bay would lessen snarls.

“We have been told by Tata Steel and its utilities wing Jusco that one of the state’s biggest public parking sites is being developed along Sakchi-Kalimati Road, which is virtually Sakchi market. This will end the menace of illegal parking to a great extent and help our traffic wing to tame parking rogues,” the SSP said.

He added that even though the traffic wing of the police regularly conducted drives against parking violators by towing away vehicles and issuing prosecution slips, they had to keep a number of things in mind.

“There is a tendency among even shopkeepers and their staff to park vehicles near their shops. We have to tone down our drives when shopkeepers protest. Also, so far parking space was far less compared to the number of vehicles. But once the new bay comes up, shopkeepers cannot make excuses,” the SSP said.

SDO Dhalbhum Krishna Kumar said they would start a drive against encroachment along Straight Mile Road and other arteries of Sakchi this week and direct the thana to ensure encroachers did not return in due course.