People are facing shortage of parking lots as the Multan Development Authority (MDA) has made no allocation for the construction of parking areas in its budget, approved for financial year 2007-08.
The town planners had announced its huge budget the other day but the finance department of the MDA has not given any serious consideration to the suggestions extended by the citizens in the pre-budget meeting about the construction of parking lots in the historical city of Multan.
While the chairman MDA on the occasion of these meetings promised that he would give practical shape to suggestions of people. "We have received the suggestions of citizens in written form but owing to huge pressure from the higher authorities for the construction of roads, we cannot allocate funds for many public welfare projects," said a senior official of the authority on condition of anonymity.
In the budge 2007-08, the MDA bosses have made huge allocations for the construction of road projects but failed to allocate a single penny for construction of parking lots.
While on other hand, people in the city are facing huge problems like wastage of time, vehicles lifting and accidents in the city with every passing day. The civic body announced several times that they would build car parking lots and will not allow the construction of those high rise buildings in the city which have no adequate car parking areas but all plazas and shopping centres are being constructed without parking facility.
Owing to lack of car parking areas, mostly people parked their vehicles on the side of busy roads in the seemingly disorganised city, according to a visit conducted by this correspondent to different parts of city including Hussain Agahi, Daulat Gate, Saddar, Gulgasht Colony, New Multan, Shah Rukn-e-Alam.
While talking to this scribe, many people were of the view that they waste their precious time to find a place for parking their vehicles. The non-availability of car parking in these busy places causes traffic congestion and accidents. Parking vehicles on the sides of different roads not only causes traffic jam but also badly damage the beauty of the city.
A shopkeeper in Saddar said that due to non-availability of parking place in the market, people avoid to come to market for shopping. "Cantonment board collects different type of taxes from us but they did not think about the factors, which disturb our business," he added.
The shopkeepers at the Hassan Parwana Colony said the lack of proper car parking place not only teases business community but also visitors too who came from other cities. "Absence of proper monitoring system in MDA is the main reason behind the lack of car parking areas in the different parts of the city, as number of high-rise buildings are being constructed without adequate parking lots," said an official.
He said according to the MDA building bylaws, the authority will approve the layout plan of those buildings, which have proper space for enough parking lots. "MDA will approve the design of those buildings who show parking spaces in the plan of their structures," he added.
Most of the builders cannot follow the designs during the construction and they construct the buildings without the parking space shown in the designs. During the visit, it was observed that majority of people are using portion of roads as parking lots.