LAHORE (APP) - Poor parking facility for the public at the Lahore zoo has earned wrath of the visitors for lack of parking space at the zoo as well as frequent traffic jams on the Lawrence Road gate on Sundays. Owing to greater influx of the families to the zoo on Sundays, the zoo visitors had to park their vehicles on and along the pedestrian pathways all along the Lawrence Road towards Qadri Chowk as well as China Chowk. These vehicles choke traffic flow frequently at the traffic intersection in front of the Lawrence Garden gate especially on Sundays when average 200,000 people visit the famous zoo. The unchecked parking along the roads has added to the security risks to the adjacent buildings, visitors as well as life of the passers-by also. The waiting rickshaws at the gate further add to the traffic mess as they keep the solitary policeman on duty busy all the time and lengthen the traffic bottlenecks caused by their careless attitude. Mrs Uzma while talking to this news agency here Sunday said that the Victoria Gate on the Mall is closed after the parking space is full and the people are left with no option but to park their vehicles along the Lawrence Road unattended despite warning banners from the Investigation SHO Civil Lines Police Station about the car-lifters. Escorting her four children from the huddles of motorcycles at the Lawrence gate, she said that Punjab government should construct a parking plaza for the public so that they could visit one of the rare cheap entertainments in the provincial metropolis. The Punjab government can spend million of rupees of the public money on the construction of a parking plaza for the convenience of the shopping malls and business markets but it is shy of spending public money for the convenience of the masses, she commented. She said that the Zoo authorities should build a parking plaza along the Lawrence Road gate of the zoo in order to facilitate the public who visit this place from nook and corner of the country. A grumbling car owner, Muhammad Atif, criticised the traffic wardens deputed at the Zoo duty for sending his car to the Racecourse police station through the car-lifter on the charge of unauthorised parking along the wall of the Lahore zoo on Lawrence Road. Muhammad Rizwan, a traffic warden on duty, told this news agency that public might face some inconvenience on being fined for parking their vehicles along the roads but it was necessary to ensure smooth flow of the traffic on the Lawrence Road on Sundays. He said that people may put their as well as others lives at serious risk by parking their vehicles on the roads meant for the two-way traffic. The Traffic Warden maintained that absence of parking facility at the zoo was the main reason behind traffic jams on the road. Acknowledging the inconvenience to the public, the Director Lahore Zoo Dr Zahid Iqbal Khan, told this news agency that about 350,000 people visit the Lahore zoo on a pleasant day which aggravates the situation and the existing parking facility falls short of the need. He said that a parking plaza for the public beside the Chief Minister Secretariat Parking on the Victoria Gate, the Mall Road was planned in the past but it could not be constructed due to security concerns. Had the parking plaza been constructed, it would have provided more facility to the public as well as multiplied the income of the zoo, he added.