Parking spaces: Gulberg parking lots set to go under the hammer

Companies to automate parking over course of five-year contracts.

LAHORE:

The auction of around 100 parking lots of Gulberg could be advertised in two weeks’ time.

They are expected to go under the hammer in a month, according to LePark Managing Director Mian Shakeel Ahmad. The company has divided Lahore into 28 zones, he told The Express Tribune. The parking lots in each would be auctioned gradually.

According to city government figures there are 65 parking lots in the Gulberg area. Ahmad said the LePark survey team had identified a number of illegally operating parking lots or spaces that can be developed as parking lots, which will be included in the auction.

A CDGL official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Express Tribune that the parking lots would be auctioned for five year to give the successful bidder time to automate on the Liberty Parking model.



The 12 parking lots in Zone 1 that have already been auctioned for a year, he said, would be taken back before the LePark auction. According to him, the District Office of Public Facilities (DO PF) had included a provision about taking back control of the parking lots in the contracts.

He said the DO PF and LePark were completing legal formalities and working out the reserve price for each parking lot. He said the DO PF will soon transfer other parking lots, including those at Neela Gumbad, Gulshan-i-Ravi, Gulshan-i-Iqbal and Barkat Market, to LePark for auctioning.

The LePark MD said the auction would be open to any local or international company which fulfills set criterion. “These will include experience, expertise and financial viability,” he said. The criteria will be finalised and published in the advertisement, Ahmad said, adding that any company taking over the parking lots would be obligated to convert them into automated parking lots within a stipulated time.



“The chief minister is clear that if the CDGL can earn some profit they should… service delivery to citizens is the main focus,” Ahmad said.

He said that the Liberty Parking lot would also be auctioned.

The parking lot was the first one in the city to be automated, about six weeks ago. A Turkish company had automated the parking lot, free of charge.

Another CDGL official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said two Turkish companies had shown an interest in bidding for the parking lots. “A Chinese company is also expected to participate,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2012.