Lahore: Illegal parking stands face action

[Naveed Yaseen]

By Ali Raza
THE City District Government Lahore (CDGL) has directed town municipal officers to submit lists of all legal and illegal parking areas operating in their areas so that a uniform policy could be devised on award of contracts and action could be taken against illegal ones.

Sources in the Public Facilities Department of the CDGL said that mass misappropriation had been unearthed in award of contracts to run parking areas. They said it had also come to surface that illegal parking areas were operating with the backing of officials of the Public Facilities Department and town administration.

Parking stand contracts are awarded for fee charged on a daily basis, sources said adding the amount actually going to the government is very small. They said the parking stand outside the office of Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE) was given on a daily rent of around Rs 1,000 while the stand outside Alhamra on The Mall was given on a daily rent of around Rs 500.

To overcome this problem, the CDGL has decided to computerise data of existing contractors and parking stands across the city. Details such as the amount of parking contract, the period of contracts, names of contractors’ employees will also be computerised. Sources said the district officer (public facilities) recently wrote a letter to TMOs, directing them to submit lists of legal and illegal and proposed parking stands, lists of present and proposed motorcycle rickshaw halting points and details of existing and proposed bus stops, taxi stand and auto-rickshaw stands in their areas of jurisdiction.

Sources said majority of motorcycle rickshaws had established random halting points such as Railway Station and Mughalpura Chowk etc. They said these halting points and illegal parking stands were a hindrance in traffic flow across the city. Sources said that over 300 illegal parking stands were operating across the City.

The district officer (public facilities) told The News that he had written letters to contractors of legal parking stands to provide data of their employees for scrutiny and verification so that action could be taken against them in case of a complaint especially theft of cars from parking stands. He said he had directed contractors to ensure that their employees wear uniforms so that people could identify them.

The DO said that he had also sought the help of police department to clear mess especially illegal halting points of motorcycle rickshaws. The DO said the CDGL was serious in providing world class parking facilities to citizens. He said a transparent mechanism was being devised to enforce a uniform policy.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=159307