ISLAMABAD: In a bid to discourage the wrong parking in the markets and commercial areas of the federal capital, considered to be the main impediment in ensuring smooth flow of traffic, Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP) on Monday fined over 44 vehicles in its special campaign pertaining to various parking violations.
The action was taken in main markets of Islamabad including G-9 Markaz, F-10 Markaz and the blue area where 17 tickets were issued against no parking and 23 were issued for parking on van stop while four issued for parking on zebra crossings.
Traffic Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Farrukh Rashid and Superintendent of Police (SP) Sumera Azam were spearheading squads constituted to take prompt action against such violators who disrupts the smooth flow of traffic causing inconvenience for commuters.
The SSP said this action would be extended to other areas and important shopping centres, malls and business zones of the city, and urged the citizens to cooperate with police by avoiding incorrect parking.
During the drive, parking area, illegally occupied by the shopkeepers, were also being removed while their education teams also sensitized dwellers by holding traffic seminars, highlighting difficulties of repercussions of incorrect parking for commuters.
Meanwhile, the residents of Capital demanded the authorities concerned to build more parking plazas in the city’s commercial units, terming it only an insight solution to deal with the issue.
Citing shortage of space in the commercial areas, the residents deplored that the situation compelled them to park their vehicles on roads and linking streets.
Arsalan a resident of F-7 said multi-story parking plazas, as constructed in the other cities of Punjab, was a practical solution to the issue as a huge number of vehicles could be accommodated in a small space.
A working woman Farwa Hassan criticising the authorities concerned said, commercial areas extended in the city without allocating the land for parking ignoring the fact that numbers of vehicles are going up day by day is unjustified.
Municipal Administration Director Zafar Iqbal while talking on the issue said, his department was only mandated to auctions and executions of the parking areas and Planning was the relevant authority to speak on it.
The Planning department when contacted declined to comment, saying “every query must be raised in writing to seek an answer.”
Zafar said due to the Islamabad Metro Bus project, process of auctioning H-9 parking had lingered on, adding, F-7 parking area which had been stopped due to the concerns of trade unions would be auctioned soon.
Capital Development Authority (CDA) Director Traffic Azam Khan Lodhi held shop owners responsible for occupying parking place illegally in the city’s commercial areas.
“Citizens should be sensitized about the traffic management system and handsome parking fee should be imposed for revenue generation that would be helpful for constructing new parking plazas,” he said.
“The capital’s initial Master Plan is either completely violated or amended as commercial areas are being increased without allocating sufficient space for the parking, compromising the beauty of the city, once declared among the most beautiful cities of the world”, Babar Saleem a social activist said.
