With continuous increase in the number of vehicles, parking problem in Islamabad is becoming an "incurable headache". The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has failed to anticipate the parking problem, which would aggravate with phenomenal increase in the number of cars, wagons, minibuses and motorcycles.
Owing to dearth of space outside offices, commercial plazas one have to search for it by using all available resources at his disposal, but in the end only a few succeed.
The result of this state of affairs is that vehicles are parked wherever the car owners found space. This causes inconvenience to others. Verbal brawls have also been witnessed sometimes on "right or wrong parking" issues.
Besides the public, fast food centres, restaurants and offices suffer a lot due to this perennial problem. It is a usual complaint that people prefer to avoid going to areas, where they face parking problems.
And, at times, it has been observed that you have to wait with great anguish for vehicle, blocking your way to take out your car from a parking lot.
Needless to say, violations of rules take place when people continue to face problems, and the authorities concerned are acting like a silent spectator.
For instance, our photographer captured the image of a long queue of cars parked close to a signboard that reads: "No parking area; don't park car here, you will be challaned otherwise."
It is not a single person who ignored this signboard, but dozens of others who do so every day outside commercial plazas in Blue Area, like the one shown in the picture here.
One of the car owners, who parked his car overlooking the caution, said that violations of this nature always go unnoticed.
An official of the Capital Development Authority while talking to Business Recorder conceded that the department had so far failed to cope with the growing parking problem.
"This is what I can say. The CDA could not foresee rapid growth of vehicular traffic and construction of plazas in the last 5-10 years," he said.
According to a study, 350,000 vehicles have been registered with the Islamabad traffic police, while in the 90s, the number did not exceed 60,000. The increase is mind-boggling, but it did not move the quarters concerned to thrash out a strategy on how to facilitate rush of vehicular traffic.
However, the CDA official was quick to add that currently the department was considering undertaking survey of the areas, badly hit by parking problems.
He singled out Blue Area, Melody Market, Jinnah Super Market, Peshawar Morr and Karachi Company.
Already, he said, the CDA had made it mandatory for the new builders to ensure enough space for car parking.
As a reaction to the CDA's delayed attention to the parking problem, one may ask why it takes the department years to understand a problem, concerning countless citizens and then look for ways and means to resolve it?