A Rs 27-crore multilevel car parking project is yet to be completed in 10 years in Kalimpong, but a sporting arena on its rooftop is nearing completion, raising questions on the priorities and management skills of hill administrators.

Sources said that the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) started work on the multi-level car and bus stand at 9th Mile in Kalimpong in 2013.

“A Calcutta-based company took up ‘structural and development work’ of the project for Rs 17 crore in 2013. However, of the total area required, around 40 per cent was encroached upon when work started,” said a source.

Work had to stop after a couple of years as the encroachers could not be removed.

In 2018, work resumed and only the ground floor of the three-storey parking space was completed to accommodate “20 buses”. According to the original plan, the project should have been completed by 2015.

The project is incomplete as there is no space to set up a ramp for vehicles to reach the first and second floors.

“To set up a ramp, matters have to be settled with six encroachers,” said a source.

The first and second floors can accommodate “50 light vehicles and 20 two-wheelers” each, which would be a big respite for the cramped Kalimpong town.

Instead of completing the project, the GTA recently decided to develop a two-storey sporting arena on its rooftop for an extra sum of Rs 90 lakh.

“Construction of the sporting facility is now almost complete except stages and an audience gallery,” said a source.

The GTA has so far spent around Rs 8.9 crore on the parking project which has raised questions on whether public funds have been illspent by the hill leaders.

In the past decade, Bimal Gurung, Binay Tamang and Anit Thapa were in charge of the GTA.

A GTA official justified the construction of a sporting arena on the grounds that the initial plan had provisions for “shops on the rooftop”. “A sporting arena is now coming up instead of shops,” the official said.

However, a Kalimpong resident said: “The GTA started work on a parking space that’s incomplete after 10 years but it is on the verge of completing a sporting arena. The parking space should have been priority.”

The GTA’s success rate with parking spaces is dismal. Two parking spaces in Darjeeling are still incomplete. However, these parking spaces are being used unlike the one in Kalimpong.