RAWALPINDI: The Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) and the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) failed to launch work on the approved projects of three parking plazas in the city centre.

In 2019, the RMC approved the project to construct three parking plazas for Rs4 billion under a public-private partnership. As per the plan, one parking plaza was supposed to be constructed in Bani Market for Rs1.6 billion, the second at the old RMC office on Jinnah Road for Rs1.9 billion, while the third was supposed to be constructed in the commercial market for Rs472 million.

The Rawalpindi Development Authority had also planned to extend the two-storey parking plaza at Fawara Chowk by adding three more floors. The project would have cost Rs400 million.

According to an RDA study, more than 60,000 vehicles ply on roads in areas around the Fawara Chowk and the location requires parking arrangements for at least 1200 vehicles.

However, the current arrangement accommodates only 200 vehicles.

Official says will resume work on projects after nod from Lahore

A senior official of the RMC told Dawn that the work on many approved projects was stopped and the provincial government directed them to initiate projects with the approval of the local government department.

He said that they would start working on these projects soon after a go-ahead from the provincial government.

The official said that due to the negligence of the civic body, many new buildings were constructed in the city in violation of building by-laws.

“In the absence of the elected mayor and union council chairmen, the bureaucracy has not properly worked and [instead] it waits for directives from Lahore,” he said.

According to the building rules, all shopping plazas, markets, and trading centres must have parking lots. However, the shop owners violate rules in connivance with the RMC officials.

The Rawalpindi Division commissioner is also the administrator of the RMC. The civic body failed to formulate plans for improving the city bazaars to provide solutions to the problems faced by the visitors.

“It is difficult for shoppers to find a place to park their vehicle in Raja Bazaar,” said Abdul Rasheed, a shopper at City Saddar Road.

He said that it was the duty of the civic authority to provide facilities to people and create proper parking spaces in light of a burgeoning population.

Another shopper near Moti Bazaar, Fayyaz Malik, said that he asked his family to go shopping, and he would come back after two hours as there was no space to park their car.

He said that the RMC failed to clear the roads from encroachments and had given a free hand to the owners of commercial plazas, who added to the traffic chaos through violations of building by-laws.

Rawalpindi Traders Association President Shahid Ghafoor Paracha told Dawn that the traders were also worried about the traffic issue in Raja Bazaar and adjoining markets.

“Our businesses suffer due to the absence of parking in Raja Bazaar but the RMC and district administration have failed to come up with solutions or even start the construction of the approved parking plazas,” he said.

Mr Paracha said then Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif in 2018 approved a project to construct a parking plaza on City Saddar Road but for the last six years, the work had not started.

He said the administration and the Punjab government had turned a blind eye to the issue, adding that a delegation of traders would call on the Punjab chief minister, Maryam Nawaz, in Lahore to apprise her about the problems faced by the traders in the garrison city.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2024