Parking mafia making hay

KMC owns only a few dozen charged-parking sites

The largest city in the country has only 64 charged-parking sites that earn the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) an annual revenue of 62.39 million rupees, according to a detailed report submitted at the Sindh High Court (SHC) by the corporation.

However, one can find illegal parking sites in front of every market and plaza which remains a question mark over the metropolis’ administration.

An even bigger concern, regarding the issue, is the amount charged by the parking mafia across Karachi. The unlawful operators charge double, and at some places, more than double the officially fixed rate.

As per the report submitted to the court, the official tariff for parking a motorcycle is Rs 10, and for a car, it is Rs 30. But these rates are rarely followed in the city.

For Karachi’s District South, there are two charged-parking sites each at the Clifton Centre, Sasi Arcade, Paradise Centre, Jillani Market, Polo Ground and the Naz Plaza, and three charged-parking sites for the Beach View Park, which was auctioned after an estimate was made on an average number of vehicles parked. The report cited an estimated charged-parking revenue from the entire district to be around 14.5 million rupees.

For the District Central, three sites each for charged parking have been auctioned at Hyderi, Sereena Mobile Market, Haroon Shopping Mall, the AO Clinic in Nazimabad and two each for Liaquatabad No 4, Sindh Services Hospital, Liaquatabad, the Driving License Office in Nazimabad and the Chase Mega Mall, North Karachi. The annual revenue generated from charged parking from the entire district is estimated at around Rs12.3 million.

The charged-parking sites in District East, according to the report, include two points each at the Tariq Road, one at the service road of Shahrah-e-Faisal, the Sindbad area in front of a shopping market, the NIBD Hospital and surrounding area, KDA Market in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Hill Park, Civic Center, Ibne Seena Hospital and Mashriq Center and 4 each at the University and Shaheed-e-Milat roads. The estimated annual revenue from the charged parking in the entire district is Rs34.5 million.

The entire district of Korangi has only two charged-Parking sites that have been auctioned calculating an estimated annual revenue of Rs 0.88 million.

The Director of KMC charged-parking, Kanwar Ayyub, following the court’s directive, told Bol News that separate assessment teams for each district were notified to submit reports, based on one week’s assessment covering all the days of the week (including holidays) and the working hours (including off-peak and peak hours), to assess the true potential of each auctioned charged-parking site operated under the domain of the corporation.

A citizen Khursheed Ahmed Khan, last year moved the High Court for taking action against persons collecting parking fees in violation of the Supreme Court’s orders. He maintained that the SC had issued clear directions on the issue, but private contractors were collecting parking fees on different roads in the city. He requested the court to direct the National Accountability Bureau to conduct an inquiry into the collection of parking fees by private contractors and recover the money collected in the past several years.

Earlier, the SHC had restrained the Cantonment boards in the city or any other authority thereunder from collecting parking fees in their jurisdictions until further orders.

Illegal charged-parking

While the KMC had auctioned 64 charged-parking sites in the four districts, there are many dozens of illegal charged-parking sites operating not only other than the places notified by the city’s metropolitan corporation but also along its notified sites. This scribe noted at least seven illegal charged parking sites operating in the Hyderi area. The persons operating such sites mostly do not have receipt books and those who have the books do not have contractors’ names and license numbers on them. The commercial areas of Saddar, Burns Road, Pakistan Chowk and some parts of II Chudrigar Road in District South are infested with such illegal charged-parking sites. The people behind the running of such sites also have an understanding with the traffic police, as those vehicles whose drivers do not pay the operator and park their vehicles on their own are normally lifted taken to the nearest traffic police office and released later on after receiving a fine.

The office of the KMC’s director charged parking, when approached for comments in this regard, refused to comment, without disclosing his identity, on the issue citing that the matter is sub judice.