Mumbai: Rampant parking throws up a major challenge for Campion school

Name of school: Campion School
Location: Cooperage Rd, Nariman Pt

Campion School on Cooperage Road rightfully takes care of their students' safety by letting the school buses enter the campus, pick up the children and leave, but what has become a matter of concern for the authorities as well as the residents of the area, is rampant parking along both sides of the lane just outside the campus.

Cooperage Road has turned into a den of rampant parking, leaving almost no space for the school buses to move in and out. Pics/Datta Kumbhar

With a good flow of traffic in the lane during the day, cars are randomly parked along the footpaths, and sometimes on them, with drivers blissfully napping inside. As the school's end time (2.30 pm) approaches, parents start arriving in their cars to pick up their wards, adding to the parking chaos. By that time even the school buses line up outside the gate to go in. With regular traffic adding to the chaos, this madness prevails for about 15-20 minutes in the area, till the school buses make their way out.

Even though the Cooperage Road is quite broad, with huge footpaths on both sides, space constraints kick in once the buses and regular vehicles start moving simultaneously within the space that is left by the parked vehicles. The space narrows down further with parents' vehicles parked along the same stretch.

In the meantime, this congestion leads to a long queue of vehicles at the Madame Cama Road signal, from where they either take a right turn to Cooperage Road or go straight.

School speaks
Principal Paul Machado said, "We have a transport committee which looks into students' safety and traffic issues. The school-bus service is mandatory for students, but due to after-school activities some of them have to go in their own cars. But the biggest problem in the area is rampant parking of vehicles. We have written to the traffic police seeking a solution to this, as it restricts movement of school buses."

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