ISLAMABAD, Feb 13: After making a number of abortive attempts to overcome parking problem in the federal capital, the city managers have finally prepared a comprehensive policy to resolve the issue, a source in Capital Development Authority (CDA) told Dawn on Friday.

The increasing number of vehicles in Islamabad has become a challenge for the city planners as with the induction of about 200 new vehicles on road in a day, motorists find it difficult to find space for parking.

Proposals for creating new parking areas and plazas have been made many times in the past but it is for the first time that the CDA has chalked out a comprehensive solution to the problem.

“The car parking policy has three components that will address all aspects of the issue,” a senior official of the CDA said.

The first component is related to selection of sites for both surface parking areas and multi-storey parking plazas and their operation.

The second aspect is about the management of the parking areas to be developed at different points and the third one is how to construct multi-storey parking plazas.

It has been learnt that under the new policy, the CDA has selected five sites for construction of the multi-storey parking plazas. But the final approval of the site selection will be given by the CDA board. “Of the five plazas, four will be constructed in the commercial hub of Blue Area and Karachi Company, and later more sites will be selected in other areas,” the official said.

The CDA planners have also proposed appointment of traffic wardens to manage the parking plazas and sites.

The policy also proposes introduction of parking fees in the plazas while in case of the open spaces, there would be some time limit after which the motorists would be charged.

The CDA is also considering engaging some private firms to construct the multi-storey parking buildings on a build, operate and transfer basis.

“The CDA has no capability to run parking plazas; therefore, we have to engage some private firms,” the official said.

Two years ago the authority had announced that it would construct three double-story parking plazas at different places in Blue Area to overcome the parking problem but the plan could not be implemented for uncertain reasons.

These plazas were to be constructed on the existing three parking lots in Blue Area - in front of Sogo Restaurant, besides Savour Foods and near Muslim Commercial Bank.

At present, multi-storey commercial plazas in Blue Area have no parking facilities.