Crammed parking spaces in Islamabad need the attention of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) as a lack of parking spaces is not only adversely affecting commercial activity in the city but also forcing the drivers to park their vehicles on greenbelts.
The lack of parking lots, which also hinders the traffic flow, causing traffic jams on the city roads, has compelled the people to park their vehicles on greenbelts. In Blue Area, Karachi Company, Aabpara and other big markets, drivers are seen searching for a parking space all day. Most of them park their vehicles on the roadsides, which often leads to traffic jams.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA), despite having a gigantic infrastructure, has so far failed to solve the parking problem in the federal capital. The CDA is dawdle on its four-year-old plan to construct parking plazas in various parts of the city. It has also not been able to properly implement its building by-laws under which a building owner is bound to make adequate parking arrangements. According to the by-laws, the CDA is bound to take action against those who do not provide adequate parking for vehicles. According to a survey conducted by Pakistan Today, the majority of the buildings located in various parts of the city have no parking facility owing to which the people working there park their vehicles on the roadsides or the greenbelts.
The CDA’s planning wing started working on the plans to construct parking plazas four years ago, amid a litany of public complaints about a lack of parking. Under the plan, it had been decided that the civic authority would construct parking plazas in the city in different phases. In the first phase, parking plazas were to be built in the business centres of Blue Area.It had been decided that the civic body would construct three parking plazas in Blue Area, one near Muslim Commercial Bank, another near Saver Food and the third one near the mosque located at some distance from Saver Food.CDA Planning Wing DG Sarwar Sindhu, talking to Pakistan Today, said the authority had finalised the plan and would soon start constructing parking plazas at the selected sites. “The authority is working on the plan to identify sites for parking in the other markets of the city,” Sindhu said. Ashfaq Ali, an employee of a cellular company, said the civic body needed to make proper parking in the city. “Lack of car parking wastes our precious time as most of my colleagues are forced to park their cars far away from the office,” he said.
Ehsan Ahmed, a shopkeeper, said the lack of car parking had become a source of mental torture not only for motorists but also for the shopkeepers in the main bazaars of the city such as Aabpara Market, Melody Market, Super Market, Jinnah Super and Blue Area.
