RAWALPINDI: Saddar, the cantonment area’s hub of commerce, is facing a shortage of parking space due to the Rawalpindi Cantonment Board’s (RCB) indifference.

Visitors to the commercial area have had to park their vehicles in a vacant plot on Bank Road or on the side of the road, and while the number of visitors to Saddar is increasing every day, the RCB has yet to put in place an adequate parking management system.

The area’s three main roads – Bank Road, Haider Road and Adamjee Road – have become problematic for visitors to navigate. Banks have put up poles, chains and barriers in front of their outlets for security, and nearby shops have started to follow suit.

Due to such arrangements, visitors have to search for vacant spots where they can park their cars or motorcycles, while the RCB has also failed to ensure multi-storey commercial buildings have allocated parking space in their basements and in front of the buildings.

‘RCB has no plans to allocate parking area in Saddar due to lack of vacant space’

Under regulations, the building plan for a commercial building will be approved with the owner has allocated parking space in the basement and in front of the building.

Mohammad Bilal, a visitor to the area, said hours are spent looking for parking in Saddar since there is no space available in the area. He said shopkeepers have set up barriers in front of their shops and do not allow visitors to park there.

Farhana Chaudhry came to Saddar from the Defence Housing Authority for some shopping, but decided to head to the Public Works Department colony’s commercial area after she could not find space to park. She said the civic authority should improve the parking system in Saddar, as most people park badly, particularly near KFC and other outlets in Adamjee Road.

Mohammad Akhter, a motorist, criticised the RCB for not implementing building bylaws in the main cantonment areas.

“If a homeowner constructs a building without the RCB’s approval, officials raze the structure, but in commercial areas there is no system at all,” he said.

The president of the Cantonment Traders Association, Zafar Qadri, told Dawn the construction of new buildings without any planning was the main reason for the lack of parking space in Saddar.

“The RCB approved building plans just to make money, and there is no planning for the parking of vehicles,” he claimed.

“In front of the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology, a plaza was constructed 10 feet from the footpath, but under the law there must be 25 feet between the footpath and the main building,” he said.

He claimed such examples were proof enough that the RCB had not done any planning, and implemented the law for influential people and those who grease their palms.

“Most visitors from DHA, Bahria Town and the adjoining localities opt to go to the PWD commercial centre. I must say it is a conspiracy against traders of the cantonment that the RCB did not work on parking management in the area and visitors are decreasing with each day,” he alleged.

When contacted, RCB spokesperson Qaiser Mehmood said the RCB has ended its policy to get fees and fines for violations of parking space allocation in commercial buildings.

“The RCB directed the building branch not to approve building plans that do not allocate parking space in the basement and in front of the building,” he said. He added that the RCB has no plans to building a multi-storey car park or allocate a space for vehicles in Saddar because there is no vacant space for such a project.

Published in Dawn, March 23rd, 2017