LAHORE: The Punjab government is going to outsource the city parking lots, which the official source calls a plan to revive the outdated “contracting” system.

“The government must remember the highhandedness of Thaikadars (contractors) and their workers with the people at parking lots. It is not a matter of increasing revenue, but we should also accord respect to motorists at parking stands,” says an official source.

Local Government and Community Development Department secretary retired Captain Saif Anjum said the government was trying to introduce a mechanism under which it could not only earn revenue but also provide relief to the motorists.

The government formed in August 2010 the Lahore Parking Company (LPC) and tasked it with regulating parking lots and plazas owned by the then city district government (presently Municipal Corporation Lahore), town municipal administrations, the Lahore Development Authority, Traffic Engineering and Planning Agency and other departments. It was also tasked with building new parking plazas in the city, besides renovating/modernising old parking lots.

Following the decision, the company started taking over the parking sites from private contractors under a net revenue sharing formula (provision of 75 percent of the net revenue to the CDGL).

The LPC (LePark trade name) is running 220 lots in the city that are divided into zone 1 to 5. The affairs of a cluster of five to 10 parking lots are supervised by an official (designated as parking inspector). Each cluster has manpower strength of many parking workers and supervisors who are supposed to regulate the parking by charging Rs30 (car/jeep) and Rs10 (motorcycle) and Rs5 (bicycle). They are also supposed to greet motorists and charge the government fee for providing them parking facilities. “And it is evident that the most of the public complaints concerning overcharging, misbehave etc have been controlled considerably after inception of the company,” the official claimed.

During the PML-N government tenure, it was also decided to outsource parking lots to a private company of good repute under a phased manner, relieving the LPC of operational burden and limiting it to the extent of monitoring the system alone. The company outsourced 66 of the total 220 sites to a private company.

Another official says the experience was unsuccessful as the National Accountability Bureau had to intervene into the issue. “Finally, NAB started thorough investigations and arrested three senior LPC officials, including its board of directors’ chairman and owners of the two private companies,” says of the official. However, owners of the companies executed a plea bargain with NAB while the LPC chairman was release on bail while two LPC officials (former MDs) are passing through trial of the case,” he explained.

Local Government and Community Development Department secretary retired Captain Saif Anjum said the government was trying to introduce a mechanism under which it could not only earn revenue but also provide relief to the motorists.

“Both strategies—getting parking lots regulated directly by the LPC or outsourcing them to private contractors — are manageable. But we are trying to devise the outsourcing plan through which these we not only earn revenue but also provide respect and relief to the motorists. We are not closing the company, as we want it to work effectively by outsourcing its parking lots to the private contractors,” he explained. He said the government wanted to outsource these sites to educated contractors and not those like in the past.

He said Lahore had a potential of millions of rupees monthly parking fee revenue. In the present scenario, the company is earning nothing. “So we don’t want to make ourselves stuck-up in this situation, as we need to have a new outsourcing model that could reflect a win-win situation for all stakeholders,” Mr Anjum said.

Published in Dawn, March 25th, 2019