& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Five star hotels vie for car space

Despite bustling business, the city’s five star hotels are no better off than others when it comes to providing adequate car-parking space for its residents and visitors

SABRiNA KARiM MURSHED
Providing enough parking space has become a major problem for the city's two five star hotels.
With a bustling business scenario and better spending capacity of the residents, five star hotels like the Pan Pacific Sonargaon and Dhaka Sheraton are receiving more guests and visitors than ever before. Along with influx of more people, more vehicles have started arriving too.
The parking lot at Sonargaon Hotel has a capacity of 120 cars, which is grossly inadequate. Often, visitors at the hotel need to park their cars on the road opposite to the hotel causing traffic congestion.
For those who come with selfdriven cars it's a matter of great inconvenience. "I felt embarrassed when I had a foreign guest with me and we had to walk all the way down the road to the hotel after parking the car at a distance," said Mahbubul Alam, a banker.
Also, leaving cars in the open is very insecure.
" I left my car near the Petrobangla office and when I returned after an hour or so, its backlight was gone and also the side-view mirrors," said Sajjad Hossain.
Indeed car-theft is nothing new in the area.
But hotel officials claimed that visitors don't always have to keep their cars outside the hotel's compound.
" Only when there's a VIP inside the hotel does the visitors have to park on
the other side of the road. But that's for security reasons," said Imtiaz Ahmed Siddiquee, public relations coordinator of Sonargaon Hotel.
"In such cases the entire security system of the hotel becomes the responsibility of the Special Security Force (SSF). That's why we are not in a position to allow cars inside," Imtiaz explained.
He added that social occasions or business gatherings also creates space scarcity as the number of guests sometimes fall in the range of 8001200.
The Dhaka Sheraton too is facing a similar situation. The hotel has a parking space in front of the lobby. Sheraton's annexed building, that houses a number of commercial offices, also has an underground parking lot with a capacity of almost 60 cars. The hotel provides parking space for self-driven cars at one of its tennis courts and is using the huge open space for the proposed World Trade Centre on the opposite side of the road for parking also. Still, the number of vehicles that come here everyday, struggle to find room.
However, both hotels are taking measures to ease the crisis. The Dhaka Sheraton will have its newly built wing inaugurated within a couple of months, which will have an underground parking for atleast 120 cars.
Hotel Sonargaon meanwhile, is planning to build a four-storied parking space. It will have three floors above the surface and one underground to accommodate around 400 cars.