Street caravan parking to be banned in Antalya

ANTALYA

Parking caravans on roads in the southern province of Antalya, which has been dealing with this problem for quite some time as caravans lining the beach and occupying the streets both project an ugly sight and cause traffic problems, will no longer be allowed, the municipality’s transportation center has said.

The number of people using caravans in Antalya has been on the rise following the pandemic. With the increase, especially in the Konyaaltı district, the streets near the beach are covered with parked caravans. While some people started to live in caravans permanently after the exorbitant increase in rents, others use them for long-term vacations.

As a solution to prevent the parking of caravans near Konyaaltı Beach, which is visited by millions of local and foreign tourists every year, officials started a construction project to build a caravan park in the Arapsuyu neighborhood.

After the construction started, the municipality’s Transportation Coordination Center (UKOME) took a decision that stipulates parking caravans on the streets will be banned following the completion of the caravan park.

Sinan Balkan, one of the citizens who parks his caravan on the street, said that the decision taken by UKOME was correct, yet he does not think that the capacity of this caravan park will be sufficient for all the vehicles around the city.

“It is said to be for 50 vehicles. There are already many more than 50 caravans parked here. We will try to comply with the decision, but we want caravan parks to increase,” he said.

Stating that many people preferred to live in caravans after the pandemic, Nurettin Tonguç, the head of Antalya Transportation Planning and Rail Systems Department, said that the rise in rents is the main reason behind the increase of caravans and that they will continue to build more caravan parks.

Tonguç added that if there are still people parking on the street after the construction of the park, necessary interventions will be made.