Due to overcharging, more than 90 percent contracts for parking stands are set to be cancelled in connection with “Drastic Drive” kick-started by City District Government Lahore against exorbitant charges for parking lots in different parts of the city.
The CDGL (Public Facility) has arrested five violators besides getting FIRs registered against them in Qila Gujjar Singh.
The raiding team headed by District officer (Public facilities), Arshad Bhatti, comprising inspectors started visiting each parking stand to check the double charging spiralling out of control. “There are 250 registered parking stands operating in the city but the Public Facilities Department of the CDGL has not enough manpower to check all these parking stands on a regular basis,” a source told Pakistan Today. He said that CDGL public facilities department had also planned establishing 349 new computerized parking stands in the city to discourage overcharging.
The CDGL has more than 200 car and motorcycle parking stands at designated roads in the city. The contract of parking stands made on an annual basis ranges between Rs 40,000 to Rs 0.7 million depending upon the space and locality. The contractors have to pay 5 percent security and 1/5 percent advance of total amount of the contract of parking lot.
According to a survey, operators of almost all the parking stands have been ripping off people by charging double for parking cars and motorcycles. The parking lots in posh areas including Gulberg, Model Town, Garden Town, Faisal Town besides major city roads such as Ferozpur Road, The Mall, Egertan Road, McLeod Road, Main Boulevard, Davis Road, Jail Road, Multan Road and Allama Iqbal Road are being charged more than the set parking fee fixed by the authorities.
The CDGL (Public Facility) has set charges of Rs 10 for a car, Rs 5 for a motorcycle and Rs 3 for a cycle whereas parking lots have been charging Rs 20 for a car, Rs 10 for a motorcycle and Rs 5 for a cycle illegally. Even the parking stands outside the office of the Lahore Development Authority (LDA), the CDGL and other government offices are also charging the exorbitant rates. Parking stands outside all the major parks and other entertainment places have also started charging the illegal rates while all the parking stands outside Gaddafi Stadium were also charging Rs 10 for a motorcycle and Rs 20 for a car.
Sources revealed that with a view to discourage overcharging, the CDGL had decided to install its own signboards displaying the rates at all parking stands but the project failed due to various reasons.
Though at some places, the telephone numbers of District Officer (Public Facilities) are written on the board informing the people to complain to the department if overcharged, but contractors were not bothered as complaints remained unnoticed.
Sources said that most of the restaurants, hotels, private hospitals, schools and colleges, banks, multi nationals and commercial buildings
had also been taking illegal commission from the contractors involved in overcharging.
A CDGL official said that the department had completed the mapping process of these new parking stands and the latest computerized equipment would be installed there.
He said the CDGL would provide the places for parking besides the computers with GPS technology to parking contractors while the handheld units and the staff deployed at the parking stands would be the responsibility of the contractors.
He said that, soon after the establishment of the parking stands, CCTVs would also be installed at all the parking stands.
