LAHORE, May 8: Parking lots’ contractors throughout the provincial metropolis are overcharging under the patronage of the city district government officials.

The CDG officials are helping their ‘favourite’ contractors in getting contracts of important places. They also help contractors set up illegal parking lots. These lots have been set up on the Hall Road, Lahore Fort, Main Boulevard Gulberg, Link Model Town and Barkat Market in Garden Town. illegal parking stands are also established outside various plazas and shops.

The officials also impede any move to inspect both specified and illegal parking lots, sources say.

Besides, majority of the contractors have been overcharging without any let or hindrance.

At some places where the CDG has put signboards displaying the parking rates, the contractors tamper with them making the move ineffective.

The photograph is taken outside the Panorama Centre on The Mall, where a number of parking stands have been set up on both sides of the service lane.

One of the parking stands’ contractors, Wasim, who charges Rs5 and Rs10 for a motorcycle and a car, respectively, when asked by this scribe that he should charge according to the rates, said the CDG installed the signboards just for a show off and it had nothing to do with the actual parking rates.

He said they (contractors) used to pay ‘monthly’ to the government officials to get the contracts. The contractors also paid handsome money to officials to get contract in a desired area, he said.

When asked whether any government official used to come for inspection, he shook his head in negative.

The contractors have also illegally occupied the areas which were not originally included in their contracts.

The contractor of the Bagh-i-Jinnah has put up barricades at all the entrances to occupy every inch of the place. Now every motorcyclist and motorist has to pay for parking in the lot.

There are also reports about further subletting of parking contracts on daily basis. Many contractors make extra money by using this method.

One Sadiq at a motorcycle parking lot outside PACE department store in Gulberg said the contract was sublet to him for Rs2,000 per day. However, he claimed that contractors never sublet a car parking stand on a daily contract basis because there was a huge margin of profit involved in it.

Some parking lots which are established on service lanes have turned into encroachments. Where the CDG allows a contractor to use two lanes for the parking, he uses three or four lanes which creates hurdles in the smooth flow of traffic. — Zulqernain Tahir