Parking on main roads a security threat?

LDA director admits flaws enforcing rules’ implementation;underlines need for strong political decisions

LAHORE

The dramatic increases in vehicular population, non-enforcement of rules, and silence of city planners during the recent years have worsened the parking issues in the provincial metropolis. ?

Almost every main road of the city is clogged with parked vehicles which can be a very high security threat in the present situation as it is impossible for police and law enforcing agencies to check every vehicle in the city. Besides, parked vehicles also slow down traffic and cause traffic jams. ?

The city witnessed a boom in commercialization and urbanization in the last two decades and the consequent increase in vehicular traffic. The city planners failed to evolve strategy for future parking problems which has now gripped the entire city. ?

Ironically, in the recent past, the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) and City government have completely failed to enforce building bylaws during construction of majority of multi-storey plazas, marriage halls, schools and commercial centres. ?

The silence of LDA’s higher authorities in initiating any action against the officials of the departments concerned who let this happen have encouraged the new comers to continue ‘facilitating’ the business community in one way or the other. Even today a large number of buildings, including plazas, marriage halls and other commercial buildings are under construction in violation of building bylaws, said a senior LDA official on anonymity. He said that strict vigilance and departmental action was a key to enforcing building rules.?

The most common question which citizens have in mind before leaving for destination is where they will park their car/bike. The city needs immediate and smart solutions to overcome this colossal problem as well as a long-term planning.?

Urban planning experts suggest the town planners introduce Geographic Information System (GIS) for evaluating the existing parking problem in the city as this system is being used as a powerful technique for solving parking problems in many modern cities. ?

?“The improvement of GIS technology opens a new way for urban parking planning and policy-making,” said Shahid Islam, a student of urban planning. He said the main cause of parking problems in Lahore was disparity between the supply of parking facilities and parking demand. “Our parking demand is very high due to unavailability of a mass transit project,” he said, adding gap between demand and supply of parking spaces was widening year by year. ?

?“Educate general public about discouraging one-person one car approach,” said Mudassar, a city resident. He said lately he was in Europe where he closely studied traffic and parking issues and found out that changing one-person one car approach could provide some relief to the Lahorities. ?

Lack of professional parking management is another issue which aggravates the problem as irregular and illegal parking stands can be found on every main road of the city. This also shows loose grip of civil administration and town planners on enforcement of rules. ?

Irshad Hussain, a senior citizen, said that free parking on roads would only give rise to the overall congestion. “As a matter of fact there is a need to manage the demand and supply in a better fashion to pave way for modern parking solutions to come into the picture,” he said, adding citizens are ready to pay but for a standard service. ?

Dr Najam, a resident of Iqbal Town, said why don’t government make parking lots below roads. He said enforcement of law was vital to clear the clogged roads, he said adding one could witness wrong parking outside the LDA’s parking plaza in Moon Market, Iqbal Town. ?

Shazia Aziz, a student, said one way to handle the parking problem is to take away the subsidy provided for parking. “The charges for parking should be determined as per the land value of the particular area or the rent that is being charged for the same. It is also important that major sites of tourist interest, heritage zones and shopping areas are made strictly off limit for cars,” she suggested.?

Recently multi-level parking lifts were introduced in Lahore by the government as well as some private companies. A rotator lift with 12 slots has been installed on Ferozpur Road near Ichhara while Lahore Mayor said that three more similar lifts would be erected at various other busy spots. ?

LDA’s Town Planning Director Khalid Mehmood said that strong political decisions were very important for implementation of rules. He admitted the fact that LDA lacked enforcing rules’ enforcement regarding parking facilities. The scribe also repeatedly tried to contact LDA’s Chief Town Planner Waseem Khan but he didn’t attend his cell phone neither replied to various SMS sent to him regarding the story. ?