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Car parks hard to manage

Designated spaces in commercial buildings in city occupied or used for other purposes; multi-storey car parks yet to open

Tawfique Ali
While traffic police have started using wheel clamps against illegally parked cars on streets, designated car parks of commercial buildings in the capital remain illegally occupied or are being used for other purposes.
This leaves cars parked on the streets worsening the congestion situation in the capital.
Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk), responsible for making sure car parks are used accordingly, fails to do its job due to manpower and logistic constraints, said its top officials.
Even though Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) initiated two multi-storied car
parks in Motijheel and one in Banani, those are yet to be opened for public use.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) started using wheel clamps from March 11 to lock vehicles illegally parked on streets and to ensure that they are towed away. Traffic police of four divisions are now equipped with 100 wheel clamps to tackle illegal parking on streets.
Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman, joint commissioner of traffic police department, said they ignore illegal parking if cars are parallelly parked, considering the reality of lack of parking space.
He said double parking or parking in three rows occupying more than half the street is unacceptable. Such parking
creates horrendous traffic mess that paralyses the capital every day.
Mahbubur said they tow nearly 200 and issue tickets against 500 vehicles a day for illegal on-street parking but it does not make any big difference in stopping the offence since the number of offenders is overwhelmingly high.
According to Prof Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, an eminent civil engineer, at least 20 percent road space in the capital is occupied by illegally parked cars.
According to DCC officials, around half of Motijheel and Dilkusha streets and Bailey Road and half of Mirpur Road and Gulshan Avenue remain occupied by illegally parked cars.
Apart from one street to the south of New Market and a small stretch of road near Krishi Market, the DCC has not leased out any other road for on-street car parking.
DMP authorities handed over a list of 198 buildings to Rajuk in September 2009 asking it to recover their car parks which were being used for other purposes.
Owners of commercial buildings on Mirpur Road and at Mirpur-1 intersection, where Rajuk conducted eviction drive following the
DMP list, moved in on the car parks with their commercial setups within a week.
Rajuk, however, spared government-owned buildings and prominent shopping malls in Motijheel, Gulshan and Dhanmondi. Buildings on the list included Bangladesh Bank, Sonali Bank, Dhaka Bank and Uttara Bank and shopping malls in Gulshan and Dhanmondi.
Md Nurul Huda, chairman of Rajuk, claimed that they carry out drives against illegal occupation of car parks in buildings but lack of manpower prevents them from being consistent.
Rajuk officials might have treated government-owned buildings leniently, said Nurul. Many buildings in Motijheel were approved in the 70's and 80's without provision for car parks, he said.
Sheikh Abdul Mannan, member (planning) of Rajuk, said Rajuk has identified nearly 5,500 buildings that have deviated from their approved plans, including those using car parks for other purposes.
During the last caretaker government in 2007, Rajuk carried out eviction drives at many renowned commercial buildings in the posh areas of Gulshan and Dhanmondi to reclaim illegally occupied car
parks. But the building owners reoccupied those within a month making the attempt a mockery.
Skyscrapers housing private universities, restaurants, hotels and commercial establishments on Kamal Ataturk Avenue, Gulshan Avenue and Banani Road-17 have either rented out their car parks for commercial use or have not kept the space for car parks at all.