In Matheran, one has to leave the vehicle four kilometers away and walk

Mumbai: Matheran, located in the Eco-Initiative Zone, is the only hill station where motor vehicles are prohibited. As a result, vehicles have to park near Dasturi Naka, the entry point to Matheran. But during weekends and holidays, the influx of tourists increases so much that there is no space left to park cars and other vehicles. So most tourists have to park their vehicles on the roadside for three to four kilometres and reach Matheran on foot.

There is a large scale encroachment in the forest department premises at Dasturi Naka in Matheran. As such, there is no place to park vehicles. On the other hand, there is enough space to park 50 cars on the way to Panorama Point. But the police object to parking vehicles there.

A social activist from Matheran said that funds are jointly collected by the Municipal Council and the Forest Department for car parking at Dasturi Naka. But tourists have to face problems due to lack of adequate parking space. Due to lack of parking space in the Dasturi Naka parking lot, tourists park their motorcycles on one side on the Neral-Matheran Ghat Road. As a result, there is a huge traffic jam on weekends. Sometimes one has to stand in line for two-three hours. Sometimes many tourists get bored and stop going to Matheran or return to Matheran after finding parking in Neral and tourists reach Matheran by taxi.

A large plot at Sturi Naka is yet to come under the control of Matheran Municipality-Parish. Once this plot is available, around 200 cars can be parked. Secondly, the administration has not been successful in removing encroachments on this plot. As a result, the traffic police had to conduct an exercise to smoothen the traffic on Ghat Road over the weekend.