Pindi’s first commercial parking plaza on cards

Facility will have space for 500 cars, as many motorcycles

RAWALPINDI: The district administration has decided to build a large commercial parking plaza on 17 kanals of government land at the former government transport service (GTS) bus stand, in the heart of Saddar, to solve the serious problem of parking in Cantt Bazaars on a permanent basis.

After the completion of this commercial parking plaza, parking of vehicles and motorcycles in bazaars will be banned. All traders of Cantt Bazaars have welcomed and supported this project.

The facility will have the capacity to park 500 cars and 500 motorcycles.

Rawalpindi Commissioner Muhammad Mahmood will directly supervise this project. A meeting has also been held under his chairmanship for this parking plaza. Work on the project will begin in the last quarter of the year.

The 17-kanal plot is owned by the government of Punjab and it was used as a GTS bus terminal. The service ferried passengers of Rawalpindi, Islamabad and nearby localities from 1968 to 1998, and the terminal was a hub of intra-city transport then known as GTS Bus Adda.

Afterwards, the public bus service was gradually phased out. Under former President General Pervez Musharraf, the huge plot was given to a private transport company. Later on, the private transporter also left the area and the land has been was lying vacant for the past several years.

Following the onset of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, a 300-bed quarantine field hospital has been built here. After the eradication of the pandemic, however, a multi-storey commercial parking plaza will be built on this vast plot.

Preparations have started for the construction of this commercial parking plaza at all the major markets and shopping malls of Saddar.

Shopkeepers will be required to park their vehicles at the designated places in the plaza against a monthly fee. People coming for shopping, will be required to park their vehicles in the plaza too. They would be charged an hourly fee.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2020.