The Turks have gone back home leaving the car parking at Liberty at the disposal of Lahore Parking Company (LePark), Pakistan Today has learnt.
The automated parking facility at Liberty was being run by a Turkish company as a favour from the Turkish government. Recently, the parking facility had stopped functioning the way it was designed to function; the electronic ticketing had come to a halt while cases of corruption in the revenues being generated from the facility had started to surface.
Sources at the City District Government Lahore (CDGL) claimed that corruption cases by the Turks were being reported at the parking facility. Sources said that the automated ticketing system at the parking had become dysfunctional and the site was not being maintained.
Sources said that earlier when the parking facility was launched as a ‘gift’ from the Turkish government, the site generated a daily revenue of Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000, while on weekends the figured reached Rs 100,000 as more visitors frequented the market. Sources claimed that revenues were plummeting as each day passed, indicating the involvement of the parking staff in appropriating the money.
Currently, Lepark is operating the site in the traditional non-automated way, while the dream of automated parking at Liberty has shattered.
The government had sought assistance of Turkish companies to maintain and regulate the parking sites in the metropolis in a bid to put an end to unions which illegally operated parking sites in the city. The move was made to formally regulate the parking sites in the city. The Turkish government had agreed to take up the task at Liberty as a good will gesture to the Pakistan government. While, a similar move at The Mall was also made, installing electronic ticketing machines at the parking sites on the road’s service lanes. That too was a job badly maintained and now no such automated parking can be seen either on The Mall or at Liberty.
Sources report that the Lepark was planning to contract out city’s parking sites and the contracts will be awarded to those companies who will win the bids.
While the issue of parking sites in the city continues to hang in the balance, the officials of the Lepark, when contacted, refused to comment on the issue.