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High-rises without parking lots add to traffic congestion

MORSHED ALI KHAN
An alarming rise in high-rises without adequate parking facilities is hamstringing the government's ambitious drive to ease the city traffic.
Most of the city's 10-storey and higher buildings -- estimated at 570 -- do not have the parking space prescribed by the law, official sources said. The violation is fast contributing to the chaos on the already clogged city thoroughfares.
According to the Building Construction Rules, 1996, 23 square metres of parking space is a must for every 200 sq m floor space of commercial buildings, 100 sq m of shopping complexes and 300 sq m of hospitals and clinics.
The law, however, has been pervasively flouted throughout the city. Traffic sergeants in Gulshan, Banani, Uttara, Panthapath area and Motijheel said on any working day roads and open spaces are choked with vehicles looking for a parking space. The multitudes of visitors to the offices in those areas have no option but to leave their cars on the roads, often in multiple rows, creating severe traffic congestion. Hundreds of thousands of
working hours are lost every day as more and more people are caught in the congestion.
Spending millions on improving traffic signals, intersections and roads will not solve the traffic problem, the sergeants observed. One of them stationed in Dhanmondi said on condition of anonymity, "The city's traffic situation is set to deteriorate rapidly if the high-rises don't arrange for their own parking spaces as required by the law."
In a recent visit to Gulshan sections 1 and 2, where existing and under-construction high-rises at Gulshan-2 does not have any provision for parking at all. Next door, the 16-storey Land View, which houses scores of offices, has a basement parking lot for about 10 to 12 cars only. The underconstruction 18-storey Taher Tower has a single basement floor reserved for parking, while the 15-storey PBL Tower can accommodate only 12 vehicles in its basement.
The 18-storey Silver Tower in Gulshan-1 has room for no more than 15 cars in its basement, said a security guard, adding at least 70 to 80 cars remain parked around the tower every office day.
Officials in-charge of the buildings said the vehicles of visitors are usually parked on the pavement or in the open spaces in the vicinity. "Parking facilities are scarce here in Gulshan. So visitors and others have to leave their cars on the streets," one of them said.
Not all the new high-rises violate the law, however. According to an official of the 23-storey Uday Tower, the newly built high-rise has comparatively adequate parking facility in Gulshan. Room for five cars has been allocated for each of the 11,200 sq ft floors.
Silver Tower Managing Director MA Selim said the two basement floors of the building can house 30 cars. He, however, admitted that the space is not enough for the number of cars that go there a day. He said, "The number is so high because the Aktel office is here."
"We have already purchased a 3.5-decimal plot nearby to use as a parking lot," the lawmaker from Bagerhat-2 told The Daily Star over telephone.
When contacted over telephone, the general manager of Shezad Plaza declined to comment on the absence of parking space. "You better ask our engineer," he said but refused to give the name of the engineer. After repeated requests, he gave a phone number to contact the engineer.
When The Daily Star called that number on Thursday, a man said it was Shezad factory. But he was confused about who the engineer of Shezad Plaza could be. "There is no engineer here now. An engineer named Mosharraf has recently joined, but he will be here on Saturday," he said.