August 7, 2003

Charged parking was meant to manage the flow of traffic but motorists are finding it difficult to digest the concept and problems continue to occur, reports Shazman Shariff

Forget the high-sounding reasons given for introducing charged parking because the concept has still not been stamped with approval by the public. They have come to terms with it grudgingly and unwillingly, and find it difficult to hold themselves back from haggling with the parking attendant before they open their purses.

Already overtaxed, residents of Karachi are infuriated that places where they had previously been parking for free have been turned into charged parking zones; meaning an additional burden on their pocket. The fact that besides busy business and shopping spots, hospitals and public recreation areas have also been included in the list of charged parking zones has left them more critical of the lucrative scheme — perceived by many as an unnecessary measure taken by the authorities.

Besides the public’s outright opposition to the whole scheme when it was introduced a couple of years ago, their primary grievance was that they had to make fresh payments for every new parking spot which exhausts a fairly good amount of their income; particularly when every part of the city has gradually been declared a charged parking zone.

Although charged parking is here to stay, whether one likes it or not as it is turning out to be good source of revenue generation, at least the city government has done something to ease the burden on the poor tax payers by recently allowing unrestricted validity of the parking tickets.

This new measure gives respite to the public as a ticket issued for Rs5 to two wheelers and for Rs10 to four wheelers will be valid at all the designated charged parking lots in any part of the city for three hours. The same rule will be applicable to tickets issued for the whole day; that being Rs10 for two wheelers and Rs25 for four wheelers. “In the beginning of July, we declared Karachi as one zone to allow the same ticket to be used anywhere,” said Muslim Pervez, chairman, Charged Parking Committee, city government.

A system of concessional monthly passes has also been introduced to facilitate citizens. Motorists can pay Rs200 for two wheelers and Rs500 for four wheelers, which will save them the trouble of paying every time they park their vehicle. At the moment there are 21 designated parking sites in the city and the parking contract has been handed over to one contractor by the city government at the sum of Rs 61.3 million.

“In our agreement with the contractor it has been mentioned that parking sites have to be marked with signboards for the knowledge of the public. This is being done as part of the contract. It is all about giving facilities to the people,” added Pervez. He did not rule out the prospects of having more areas declared as charged parking sites in future.

Residents may be swallowing the concept of charged parking in commercial areas like Saddar but they are indignant at the thought of paying for parking at hospitals. Considering the huge turnover one can expect that more and more hospitals will be put on the list of charged parking sites. At the moment two hospitals, Ziauddin Hospital and AO Clinic are included in charged parking areas.

Commenting on this, Pervez said that the city government introduced charged parking on the request of the hospitals’ administration. The reason for this was that traffic around hospitals created many problems, especially for the emergency cases. So charged parking was needed to organize the traffic at these spots. “Now we have been approached by Civil Hospital. They also want us to introduce the scheme there as that area is also very congested,” he added.

Although the list mentions only the aforementioned hospitals, there have been reports that people visiting Ashfaq Memorial Hospital and Gulshan-e-Iqbal are also charged for parking. A patient visiting one of these hospitals lamented that the contractor is making people park in the service lane in front of the hospital. This is causing problems for patients and other motorists as the parked cars constrict the already narrow lane which hinders the traffic flow, and results in traffic jams.

“We will look into the matter, though nothing of the sort has been brought under our notice,” commented Pervez.

Regarding the action to be taken against those who park their cars without paying the charges, he said such a person would have to pay Rs15 in addition to the parking charges for whatever he has parked and to get his vehicle unclamped.

According to Pervez, they have received positive feedback from people who approve of the scheme, and so far there have been no obstacles in getting it implemented. However, TR met a motorist who, after venting his displeasure over charged parking, wanted to ask the authorities where the money earned goes?

TR posed this question to Pervez who replied that the money generated is being utilized by the city government for its various development projects. “All over the world this is a major means of revenue generation for the city councils,” he said, reiterating his point that many of the projects like road construction and related development work is carried out with this money.

The main question raised against the implementation of the scheme is that people are already paying road and motor vehicles tax in addition to license fee etc to bring their car on the road. “The problem is that we are not accustomed to this idea. It is not a burden on people but a facility. The charges and additional surcharges people pay for their electricity bills can be termed a burden. In reality people should feel secure that their car is parked on the right site, although our contractor is not responsible for any damage or car theft,” said Pervez.

The idea of charged parking was floated in Karachi by the Citizens Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) in April 1993, in collaboration with the now abolished KMC, Traffic Engineering Bureau and the Traffic Police. Besides streamlining the traffic flow, another purpose was to discourage people from parking at busy thoroughfares for long hours, said Shamim I. Junejo, chairman Charged Parking Project, CPLC.

“We introduced it as a system; a concept not known to the people here and carried it out in such a way that people supported us. Putting a burden on them or devising a money minting scheme was absolutely not our objective,” he said. Before the CPLC took this project in hand there had been attempts in the past for charged parking projects, but they failed to fetch the desired results.

The busy arteries where the CPLC introduced charged parking were Abdullah Haroon Road, Castle Street, Sir Sultan Ahmed Shah Agha Road and Zaibunnisa Road. Attendants were employed to collect parking fee for two hours which was Rs5 for cars and Rs2 for bikes.

The authorities were quite satisfied that the scheme had manifold benefits. Predominantly, it served the basic purpose of alleviating traffic jams in areas people dread to come to as they would not find parking space. Secondly it created job opportunities for 150 youths employed as parking attendants and finally it generated revenues which were utilized in traffic betterment projects left out due to paucity of funds by the KMC. This included putting traffic signs on roads, making speed breakers or any task that was related to better traffic facilities for the public. A part of the income was spent in giving salaries to attendants.

Things were being run pretty smoothly by the CPLC, but it was made to wash its hands off the scheme in April 2001. A succinct reason for its sudden exit from the scheme, as provided by Junejo, is that the CPLC’s contract was not renewed by the new administrator of KMC, Brig. Abdul Haq. He did not delve into the factors which had prevented the renewal.

Traffic management, which is the major aim of charged parking, has to do more with the traffic police. Highlighting the traffic police’s role in the scheme, Yamin Khan, DIG Traffic, said that although it worked in coordination with the city government, it was not directly linked with it. It only ensures that the contractor is making people park at the right spots according to the traffic laws. “To make more money, they often allow double parking or parking on footpaths. One can even see cars parked at turnings which is totally against the traffic laws,” he remarked, adding it was at such instances that the traffic police had a role to play.

The traffic police gets the cars removed with instructions to the contractor to allow parking only where it will not obstruct roads or cause hindrances to motorists and pedestrians. He cited an example of a step they took at Altaf Hussain road. The contractor of the area had allowed slanted parking and parking at 90 degrees as this way more cars could be accommodated, but it narrowed the passage for traffic.

After intervention of the traffic police, a system of parallel parking was enforced, which accommodated fewer cars, but widened the path for motorists. “It is definitely a source of income, but it should aim at creating facilities for citizens. If under the cover of the scheme, traffic rules are violated and people are encouraged to park everywhere this will further create traffic problems,” remarked Khan.

Parking is a growing problem in numerous commercial areas due to various reasons. First, there is a lack of planning to accommodate the increasing number of cars in proportion to the exploding population. Secondly, many of the towering commercial plazas of the metropolis have been constructed without any provision of car parking, which is a violation of the 1975 parking laws of KBCA, that stipulate parking space with all buildings in proportion with per square foot of the entire covered area.

With no allocation of underground car parking people are forced to park on streets and service lanes which adds to the congestion. One of the sources informed TR that many of the plazas do have parking lots but they were either sold to shopkeepers or converted into godowns.

To solve parking problems Khan suggested there should be a comprehensive master plan for parking in the city to see how many roads charged parking can be allowed on. He said that not all thoroughfares should be considered charged parking zones, especially not in the old city where the lanes are narrow and the traffic load is enormous, if this aspect is overlooked people would only face more inconvenience. Besides, vacant plots in densely congested areas like Saddar and Lea Market can be used to build parking plazas.

“Space should be created for parking, it is a growing problem. It is estimated that there are 1,300,000 cars in the city,” said Yamin Khan.

Refuting the reports that people are allowed to park on footpaths or in double rows Pervez said charged parking is serving its main aim of managing traffic. “People need space to park their cars, if we have taken the task of managing it it is for the facility of the people.” To solve this problem he suggested, if the means for public transport is improved on a massive scale and the system is strengthened, then there might be chances that people will bank on it, reducing the number of private cars on the road.

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