The newly made Lahore parking company, Le-Park, has failed to maintain vehicle parking charges in the city, Pakistan Today has learnt. The company’s dream of automating the parking fee system at the parking sites in the city appears to be falling down to pieces as local contractors are continuing to overcharge citizens in different areas of the city.
Le-Park was established in a bid to uniformly contract out the city’s parking sites, standardizing parking charges across the city. A 25-year agreement had been signed between the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) and Le-Park, according to which 75 percent of the total revenue received from parking tickets was to be given to CDGL while the rest of the 25 percent was Le-Park’s share.
Despite CDGL’s attempt to ease out commuters, the citizens, however, at the parking sites at Gulberg, Mall Road, Model Town and Iqbal Town, complained that they were being overcharged. Normally, Rs 20 should be charged for parking, however, the citizens are being charged up to Rs 50 for parking their vehicles. Overcharging is not being noticed by the concerned authorities, the company, however, is in the process of contracting the parking sites in the city.
The company has been assigned the task of regulating all parking lots and plazas of the city government, town municipal administrations, LDA, TEPA and other departments. It is responsible for building new parking plazas in the city besides renovating the old parking lots.
Moreover, the government appears to be not paying any heed to the collapse of the Turkish automated system at Liberty. The parking site at Liberty was being regulated by the Turks as a goodwill gesture while the revenue being generated was given to the government. However, it was a matter of days when the automated system fell flat on its face and the Turkish ticketing system was replaced by CDGL’s manual ticketing.
When contacted, Le-Park officials refused to comment on the issue.