ISLAMABAD: Besides an under-construction parking plaza which is being built with revised deadline, the city managers have decided to start construction of two more similar plazas. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) in the next three days is going to call tenders for awarding work to start two new parking plazas.

According to a document of the CDA, work on Blue Area parking plaza worth Rs1.3 billion is in progress. It will have a basement plus ground and six storeys and will have the capacity of parking 900 cars and 150 motorcycles. The plaza is being built near Savour Foods.

This project was started in March last year and it was supposed to be completed in March this year, but it could not be completed in one year’s time and now under the revised deadline, this project is supposed to be completed on Sept 30 this year.

CDA to call tenders for award of work during next three days

An official of CDA said that the said plaza faced delay in completion and missed the deadline because of crossing of a big nullah from the project site. “Actually, because of the nullah and slush, we missed the initial deadline, however, now, the project is in full swing and will be completed by Sept 30,” said an official.

Meanwhile, director works Tahir Mahmood said that CDA had decided to start construction of two more plazas immediately. “We are going to call tenders in the next three days to award contract of two plazas - one each in I-8 markaz and one in F-8,” he said.

He added that design of four more plazas is also completed and soon the authority will decide when they will be started. “But, it is confirmed that we are going to start I-8 and F-8 parking plazas soon as tender will be called in three days,” the director said.

It is relevant to note here that parking is one of the major issues, the city has been facing. The available parking space is shrinking and causing problems for motorists.

In the past, the CDA instead of constructing multi-storey parking plazas had built two underground parking spaces in Jinnah Super Market. But those parking lots could not be utilised properly even though millions of rupees were spent on their construction.

CDA officials Dawn spoke pointed out that besides massive increase in the number of vehicles during the last two decades and so, poor implementation of bylaws and ill planning were contributing factors behind this issue.

They said that parking spaces had been designed in markets and plazas in accordance with a number of shops but with the passages of time shop owners, alerted the layout plan, increasing the number of shops.

While, in commercial buildings in marakaz, adequate parking space should have been made in basements. Whereas, the number of shops has also been increased in all class three shopping centres (neighbourhood markets).

Earlier, in 2016, the Islamabad Traffic Police had written to the CDA regarding the shortage of parking spaces in Blue Area and other commercial centres, including F-8 Markaz.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2023