Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) assigned a firm to collect toll from parking vehicles in Motijheel and Dilkusha area despite an existing multi-storey parking facility at Sadharan Bima Corporation constructed in 2006 to ease traffic congestion.
The parking facility at Sadharan Bima Corporation at Dilkusha has a capacity of accommodating 575 vehicles but around 185 vehicles are parked there on an average every day as the charge is more than parking on the road.
The DCC on June 15 issued the work order to Nawal Construction to maintain the parking in Motijheel and Dilkusha area. Nawal will pay Tk 18 lakh to DCC for one year.
Interestingly, the firm is also collecting tolls from vehicles parked in front of Sadharan Bima, said locals.
According to the work order Nawal will collect Tk 10 from a private car and Tk 8 from a CNG-run three wheeler and motorcycle for the first two hours, said an official of DCC.
The firm, however, is taking Tk 10 from a private car for the first two hours and Tk 20 for the whole day.
A top official of DMP said around five months back at a meeting with DCC they suggested taking three times higher toll from street parking than that of the parking space to encourage people to park their cars at the parking lot of Sadharan Bima Corporation.
“But DCC is charging less for street parking encouraging people to park their cars on the street rather than the multi-storey parking facility meant to be used for parking,” he said, adding that this will not help ease the traffic jam in the area.
General manager of Sadharan Bima Corporation ARM Khalequzzaman said the parking space at the Sadharan Bima was constructed as per a decision of the BNP government during its tenure in 2006.
“We could have earned three times more if we had constructed offices in place of the parking space but we did it for the sake of easing the traffic gridlock in the area. We are not getting proper response from vehicle owners due to lack of support from the law enforcers,” he said.
He said the recent decision of DCC has further reduced around 20 percent vehicles at our parking space, which are now being parked on the road.
“We have issued a letter requesting DCC to change the decision as this kind of parking will encourage people to park their cars on the road,” he said.
“We earn Tk 2.25 lakh every month which can go up to Tk 9 lakh if the parking space is filled to its full capacity,” he added.
“We also sent a letter to IGP two months back and after that traffic police conducted a drive there which helped us to get around 100 more cars,” he continued.
Riday Hossain, an employee of Nawal, said they had been collecting toll since June 15.
Joint Commissioner of traffic Manzur Kader Khan said parking on the road causes serious traffic congestion in the area.
Jasim, a driver of a private car who parked his car on the road just in front of the parking lot, said as his master is not willing to keep his car at the parking space at Sadharan Bima he parks it on the road everyday.
Another driver of a private car Shafiq who also parks on the road from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm everyday said he has nothing to do, as it is the decision of his master to park on the road.
Chief Town Planner of DCC Md Sirajul Islam said they suspended parking on the street after the inauguration of Sadharan Bima Corporation parking facility.
As a huge portion of the parking lot remains empty and cars are parked on the street in front of the specified parking space of Sadharan Bima they allowed parking on the streets, he said.
Siraj said they had assigned a firm to bring the vehicles under a systematic parking and improve the worsening traffic congestion in the area.
Parking on the street will be stopped after the completion of two under-construction parking lots — City Centre and another one at Dilkusha just beside the Sadharan Bima Parking facility, he said.
“We have allowed parking at those places where it will not hamper the traffic movement,” he said.
Siraj said they had sent a letter to DMP asking suggestion of parking on the streets before giving the permission but they did not get any reply.
“We are open to any suggestion to ease traffic chaos in the area in future,” he added.
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