Parking plaza to be built at Varan bus stand land

Rawalpindi : On the directives of commissioner, Metropolitan Corporation Rawalpindi (MCR) has taken over land of Varan Bus Stand to construct a modern parking plaza in Saddar. The land is owned by Punjab government.

Metropolitan Corporation Rawalpindi (MCR) has completed a survey to build five other parking plazas and chosen the location of Commercial Market near Fire Brigade Nursery Land, Kutchery near CPO office, City Saddar Road at Old Tehsil Office, Banni Market and at Ghazni Market. Commissioner Rawal­pindi Division Captain (r) Mohammad Mehmood has also directed Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) to add a couple of storeys in Fawara Chowk Parking Plaza to increase its parking capacity.

Municipal Officer Planning (Shahzad Haider told ‘The News’ that we are trying to vanish traffic related issues from city areas. Commissioner Rawalpindi had directed us to point out areas for parking plazas. We have pointed out five ideal locations to construct parking plazas in city, he said. He said that we are doing work according to new established Public Private Partnership Authority (PPPA). Punjab government is going to introduce Public Private Partnership Authority Act, he said. He said that commissioner Rawalpindi division also directed us to take over Varan Bus Adda in Saddar to construct a modern parking plaza because this land was owned of Punjab government.

We have planned to construct parking areas on first three floors and residential flats on other floors. Similarly, we will demolish residential houses of officers near Kutcherry to construct parking plaza, he said. “We will construct officer’s flats over parking plaza at Kutcherry,” he said. He said that they have planned to demolish all shops at Banni Market owned by MCR to construct parking plaza.

He also said that we are taking this initiative with full cooperation of city’s traders. The first parking plaza in city built by Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) runs out of space during peak hours as it can accommodate only 1000 vehicles at a time.