A question of legality: Charged parking lots cause traffic chaos

The citizens of Hyderabad are being fleeced in the name of charged parking which is also creating traffic congestion in many areas and none other than the Hyderabad Municipal Corporation has itself acknowledged this fact.

However, an action to redress the balance is still not evident. At a meeting of Hyderabad traffic management board the other day, chaired by deputy commissioner Fuad Ghaffar Soomro, the municipal commissioner of the HMC Fakhir Shakir disclosed that a taxation official had allegedly connived with a contractor.

On August 2 the HMC's taxation officer Najeebullah Abro awarded the charged parking contract to M/S Subhan Enterprises.

Another letter of August 5 signed by the same official listed 23 locations in the jurisdiction of the HMC from where the contractor can collect the parking fee.

During the board's meeting the DC Soomro as well as the members complained about the traffic issues erupting at the authorised parking locations. Responding to their complaints the MC of HMC claimed that they have cancelled the said notification and he described that letter as fake and that only seven or eight charged parking places have been authorised.

One of the members asked him to share the letter through which the said contract was cancelled but the MC could not provide the same. The DC later directed Shakir to submit the cancellation letter to his office so that the unlawful charging of the parking fee can be stopped. "The HMC has been asked time and again to avoid occupying narrow roads with high traffic volume for the charged parking and instead use the large plots which it owns or those owned by the provincial government for the same purpose," a member told The Express Tribune.

Read More: Authorities barred from collecting parking fee

"However, despite repeated directives and identification of hassles in the smooth movement of traffic such the roads are still being occupied."

Talking to The Express Tribune on Friday HMC's MC claimed that the taxation official without approval of the HMC's high-ups had notified the contract. When he was asked to name the seven or eight authorised locations, he sought time to come up with the information. "It is still unclear which parking lots are legal and which ones are illegal," said another member of the board while talking to The Express Tribune.

"The HMC has only assured us that it will be taking action against the unlawful parking areas. It seems only after the socalled action will we come to know about the legal and illegal parking points."

Some of the areas which witness intense traffic clogging and which are listed among the 23 spots include SRTC to Basant Hall, Hotel City Gate, Sabzi Mandi Hali Road, Dawood Mart, Cardio Hospital Latifabad, Maa Jee Hospital, Al Sehat Hhospital, CDF Hospital and Hilal-e-Ahmer Hospital among others.