Parking woes in capital continue unabated

Islamabad: Over the years, the unbridled population growth, expansion of residential and commercial areas, and increased vehicle numbers had made parking a major challenge for the residents of the capital city.
Looking into the shrinking space that often makes mobility a yeoman’s job brings the realization that the authorities concerned are either in deep slumber or in a state of denial.
Therefore, the delayed attention towards this issue brought in an irksome challenge of most often seeking space to park their vehicles.
Owing to a lack of space outside offices, shopping malls, and business centres, vehicles are being parked wherever the car owners find space and shade, causing inconvenience to others. Therefore, verbal brawls have become common regarding the “right or wrong parking” issues. Similarly, a parking violation is very common and we usually see cars parked at places of no parking and sometimes even right in front of the No Parking board. The issue is directly related to the number of vehicles plying on Capital’s roads as over the years, this number of vehicles registered with the federal excise department rising to around one million. On the other hand, the parking space more or less remains the same adding to the woes of commuters.
Issue of parking has become more chaotic in commercial areas of the federal capital like Blue Area, Aabpara, Melody, Super and Jinnah Supper Markets,” said Adil Abbasi, a daily commuter of the expressway.
Limited public transport and expensive cab rides have increased the need for personal vehicles eventually resulting in parking problems.
Hundreds of thousands of vehicles other than those registered in the capital ply across the ICT jurisdiction stuffing the city roads. Approximately 400,000 vehicles come in and go out of the city daily on average while the number of cars and different vehicles owned by residents is almost the same, a senior official in Islamabad Traffic Police said. This number increases during duty hours and on weekends, festivals, and during the tourism season. He said the number of vehicles is also increasing because most the people prefer to use their own vehicles instead of public transport. Therefore, the government needs to introduce faster, safer, and more comfortable metro trains or transport systems in the ever-spreading capital city. Riaz Khan, a senior citizen blamed the city managers for parking problems in the Capital city, claiming that they allowed the construction of plazas and shopping malls without parking places. “Resultantly, the commuters park their vehicles on the roadside or the green belts. In most cases, plaza owners have rented out open space to vendors to the utter neglect of the administration. This tendency is equally irksome for the commuters as well as pedestrians,” he said. “I fail to understand why plazas and malls are approved without parking spaces. The residents also raise questions on whether the master plan for the capital was fully abided by while allowing construction activities. The capital’s initial Master Plan has either been violated or amended since commercial areas are increasing without allocating sufficient space for car parks, compromising the beauty of the city,” said Babar Saleem, a social activist. -Agencies