Motorists in the city continue facing troubles in finding parking spaces due to the lack of planning by the local authorities.

According to the motor vehicle registration department, more than 8,800 vehicles have so far been registered in the current month in Rawalpindi. But as the number of vehicles is increasing on the roads, parking spaces are shrinking in the city.

In congested areas and marketplaces, shopkeepers, bankers and employees of different offices use cones, rubbish bins and sometimes wooden pieces to reserve and occupy available spaces in front of their establishments, denying the visitors the parking facility. This attitude adds to the trouble of the motorists.

Taking an undue advantage from the situation, self-appointed contractors have started setting up parking compounds on private vacant plots and are charging Rs50 to Rs100 per day for a vehicle.

But after two stolen cars were recovered from such parking compounds located in the cantonment area recently and the contractors were investigated by the police, motorists coming to these parking spaces are being asked to produce their identity cards, a police sub-inspector who recovered the two stolen cars told Dawn.

“Auto-thieves always steal a car and park it at any nearby private parking compound and after some time when they find the police relaxed, they take it away. By using this tactic, the thieves can cheat the police,” he said, adding the police had started collecting data about such parking compounds and were regularly keeping check on them, especially whenever a vehicle is stolen.

He claimed that due to the police checking, car theft cases in the city have dropped recently.

Senior Traffic Officer (STO) Iftikharul Haq believed that the parking problem cannot be resolved unless multi-storey plazas were built in different parts of the city.

He said the city traffic police along with the military police had carried out a survey regarding the parking problems in the cantonment area and suggested the authorities concerned to build multi-storey parking plazas at least at 12 sites in the cantonment area.

“Many times, the commissioner Rawalpindi and the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) were suggested by the city police to build parking plazas on a priority basis but got no response,” said the STO.

He said the only multi-storey parking area located at Fawara Chowk was insufficient to meet the requirements as its ground floor could accommodate only 70 to 80 vans, the first floor 800 to 1,000 motorcycles and the third floor 200 to 225 cars.

The official said dangerous and illegal parking by parents of schoolchildren close to or outside educational institutions was another challenge for the traffic police. He said notices had been served on private school managements many times directing them to arrange their parking spaces but to no avail.

“Dangerous parking by parents, especially close to schools, not only added to the traffic gridlocks but also put the lives of children at risk, especially during school hours,” the official added.

Recently, the city traffic police imposed a ban on parking on a stretch of Murree Road from Committee Chowk to the old Naz Cinema Chowk during peak hours to ensure a smooth flow of traffic on the main artery. As part of the enforcement, more than 20 cases were also registered with the police against shopkeepers who had encroached on the footpaths and the roadsides.

However, when the traders launched a protest against the ban on parking by blocking the road, the traffic police became apologetic.

The then City Traffic Officer (CTO), Shoaib Khuram Janbaz, lodged a complaint with the Waris Khan police against the traders who staged a protest by blocking the road. However, he had to face an embarrassing situation when the police concerned did not register the case against the protesters and, as a result, the traders again encroached on the road and the ban on parking was lifted.

“It is not the job of the traffic police to clear the roads and footpaths from encroachments. It is the TMA and other relevant departments who are supposed to keep the roads clear,” the STO said.

If the parking problem has to be solved, the civic agencies, led by commissioner Rawalpindi, have to do their job with dedication to enforce the traffic laws and build multi-storey parking plazas in congested areas.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2016