Lahore Parking Company: 300 to be hired to manage parking sites

Deadline for auction of sites extended to July 16.

LAHORE: The Lahore Parking Company (LPC) is to hire 300 workers, either through a human resource company or directly on a contractual basis, to manage the city’s parking facilities until they are auctioned off to a private company.

The LPC has an agreement with the city government to take over all parking areas in Lahore on July 1. It is also currently in the process of assessing bids from three companies for the automation and management of these parking sites, though the deadline for the assessment of the technical bids – June 16 – has been missed.

At a board meeting on June 20, the LPC board decided to extend the deadline to July 16. LPC Media Manager Fasiuddin said that the company was hopeful that this deadline would be met.

Once the auction is decided, the LPC aims to transfer control of the parking lots to the successful bidder over the course of six to nine months in stages specified in the contract. Until then, the LPC will have to manage the sites on its own, for which it will need more manpower.



The board is to be presented two proposals on how to arrange for this manpower at its next meeting, to be held this week. The first proposal is that 300 workers be hired through a human resource company, and the second that they be hired on contracts directly. The workers will be supervised by 10 assistant managers and 26 site supervisors already employed by the LPC.

According to the city government, Lahore has a total of 354 parking sites, but only 180 are operational. The LPC will take over 114 of these from July 1 and the remaining 66 some time later, possibly August, leaving them under the control of the District Office for Public Facilities (DOPF) in the interim, said Fasiuddin.

However, the DOPF has expressed concern about this arrangement. In letters sent to the LPC   and forwarded to the DCO   on May 31, June 14, and then June 19, the DOPF said that it would no longer have the legal authority to manage any parking sites after July 1. The budget for 2013-14 provides that revenue from these sites will go to the LPC, not the DOPF.

The DOPF falls under the office of the EDO for Municipal Services. EDO (MS) Chaudhry Bashir, who is also an LPC board member, said that the DOPF did not have the legal authority to control any parking stands after July 1. He said that the board was expected to hear the proposals for the hiring of workers for the LPC on June 25, but the schedule had not yet been finalised.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 24^th, 2013.