KU starts charged parking outside Silver Jubilee Gate

The registrar says that charged parking is being introduced on trial as a security measure

KARACHI: After repeated motorcycle theft complaints every week from Karachi University's main Silver Jubilee Gate, the campus security officers came up with the idea to try a hand in charged parking outside the gate.

"We were receiving several complaints about cases of theft of wheel caps, mirrors, bags and even motorcycles from regular and private students," said KU registrar Moazzam Ali. He explained that, at the moment, the varsity is only implementing charged parking on trial with a private party. If the idea pans out, a proper charged parking system will be deployed after tenders and official announcements.

"The university has started charged parking from Tuesday on a trial basis for some weeks and will present [the proposal] in the syndicate committee if we find it feasible and workable for their approval," Ali told The Express Tribune.



Talking about increasing the security inside the campus, he announced that no cars with black tinted windows will be allowed inside the university from Wednesday (today). "These decisions have been taken for security reasons," he added. Campus security officer Muhammad Zubair has asked a private team to charge parking fee from motorcycles and cars for two months, said another security officer, Muhammad Asif. "The reason behind this is only to stop the theft of vehicles," said Asif.

Initially, the parking fee for motorcycles will be Rs5 and Rs10 for cars. A guard will look after the cars and motorcycles parked at the main gate of the university, where majority of the private students park their vehicles. The money generated by the parking will go straight in the university's account in United Bank Limited campus branch, said an official of the campus. The registrar also confirmed this.

Meanwhile, commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui has taken notice of the charged parking and has also asked Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) parking director Jamil Ahmed to write a letter to the varsity administration.

According to Ahmed, no authority can start charged parking anywhere without traffic management board's permission. "Universities have their own laws and they can start charged parking inside their campus according to their rules and regulations," he told The Express Tribune. However, according to him, the land where the vehicles are parked belongs to KMC. "If the university administration starts charged parking on our land, we can't let them go," he said.

"If the place is really insecure and needs charged parking, we can do it our own way, which has to follow a formal procedure," said Ahmed. He also said that KU's answer is expected till Thursday, after which, the KMC and KU can mutually decide on how to handle the issue.

Meanwhile, the varsity registrar has claimed that the land on which vehicles are parked is KU's property, not the KMC's.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2015.