Parking lots at Liberty Market, Barkat Market, Hafeez Center and Allama Iqbal Town’s Moon Market will be upgraded this year. Those on The Mall and Neela Gumbad in Anarkali Bazaar will be upgraded in the second phase of the project, whose date had not been finalised yet.
Consultants from Ispark, a Turkish company, have been surveying the parking lots of the city along with 24 City District Government (CDGL) officials and six students of the University of Engineering and Technology, currently working for the Lahore Parking Company (LPC).
The consultants, who arrived in the city on September 11 on a 21-day visit, met the city district government officials on September 13 and September 14.
The company aims to provide assistance and consultancy in upgrading major parking lots of city on modern lines.
The meetings were attended by DCO Noorul Amin Mengal, LPC Chairman Hafiz Nouman, LPC Managing Director Usman Ali Khan and Lahore Transport Company General Manager Uzair Shah.
Meeting minutes
A CDGL official who attended the meetings said the Turkish company initially presented a long-term plan, which was turned down by the DCO. He said that the LPC MD had asked for automation of 50 parking lots, but the district coordination officer ruled it out saying it would take too long given the kind of survey the consultants had proposed.
He said the district coordination officer then proposed upgrading just four parking lots in the first phase. In the end, participants agreed to this.
Some officials, however, regretted that parking problems at Nakki Market, Shah Alam Market and Abid Market were ignored, he added.
The official said there were five contractors at Hafeez Centre, all backed by the market union.
He said an attempt by the public facilities office to manage the parking lot had failed.
“Getting them to vacate the parking lot will be a challenge,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 19th, 2012.
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