Gulshan choked with illegal parking

Cars are parked on the main road near Gulshan circle-2.. PHOTO: STAR

Illegal partaking on the footpaths and roads in Gulshan, as elsewhere in the city, chokes public thoroughfares creating serious obstruction to vehicular and pedestrian movement, with the agencies concerned almost resigned themselves to the situation.

Most of the roadside commercial and other establishments in the area, with no or inadequate parking facility, mark the adjoining footpaths and public spaces, pavement and part of the main roads as their parking space.

"It is not understandable how the government remains permissive to such a blatant violation by illegal occupiers of footpath and roads who disregard the civic rights to move freely," said Sifat Nasreen, a resident of Gulshan-1.

Traffic congestion due to illegal parking on the roads and footpath in front of various commercial set-ups along the Gulshan Avenue stretching from Shooting Club to Gulshan north commercial area is a daily phenomenon.

Part of thoroughfares and footpaths all around the 14-storey Landmark building, the

12-storey Gulshan Tower and other high-rise buildings in the Gulshan north near circle-2 remain occupied in a manner as if the spaces are designated for parking.

"We use the open spaces and roads around our building for parking," admitted Belal Ahmed, a staff of the Landmark building. "Our basement parking can accommodate around 12 vehicles," he said when asked about the building's parking capacity.

Assistant Manager of Gulshan Tower Md Zakir Hossain said the tower's basement parking lot has space for at best seven cars. He admitted that lot of cars belonging to the occupants, visitors and shoppers of the building are parked on the road.

However, a security guard of the tower said only three to four cars of the building owners are allowed to park in the basement. On a visit, this correspondent found the entry gate to the basement under lock and key with a small signboard reading ''No Parking."

The Building Construction Rules of 1996 make keeping 23 square metres of parking space mandatory for every 200 sq metres floor space of commercial buildings and 100 sq metres of shopping complexes.

Shariatullah Building on the Gulshan Avenue near Wonderland that houses various shops and commercial outlets has no parking space at all.

Rows of vehicles occupy the entire footpath in front of it and part of the street in such a manner that it is really difficult for pedestrians to move.

Owner of the building Ashraf Ali, also the owner of Polar ice-cream, said that the idea of car parking did not come to his mind when the building was constructed five to seven years ago as traffic rush was not that heavy at that time.

The Standard Chartered Bank located on the Gulshan Avenue in between circles 1 and 2 has no space for parking. Hundreds of its customers park their vehicles randomly in multiple rows on the road in front of the bank.

"We have no parking space," said Sabbir Ahmed, manager branches, when his attention was drawn to the traffic congestion on the road caused by vehicles of the bank clients.

Huge number of customers of HSBC Bank's Gulshan branch occupy pavement and a portion of road no-5 in Gukshan-1 causing perennial traffic congestion on the road and obstruction to traffic movement during peak business hours every day.

Manager of the branch PK Singh claimed that the building owner has left some space along the pavement for parking. Head of the bank's administrative division Shahidul Islam said, "It is not possible to keep provision for parking inside the premises because of inadequate space."

The vehicles of the customers of Agora chain superstore are regularly found parked in front of the outlet on the Gulshan Avenue causing traffic congestion at the spot.

"We make every efforts to keep the congestion at the minimum level," said TD Packir, the outlet's head of operations, adding that their basement parking can accommodate 36 vehicles.

"Actually, the rush of customers has increased many times in the last four years," Packir said. "We have made parking arrangements on the adjacent Masjid Road and plan to direct vehicles to other adjoining roads to ease the congestion on the main thoroughfare."

Four-storeyed Shoppers World on the Gulshan Avenue has a basement parking lot for at best 10 cars, said an on-duty security guard of the shopping centre.

Administrative Officer of the outlet Motaleb Hossain said he could not make any comment on the parking space constraint, adding that the general manager could explain. But the general manager was out of country.

The picture is even worse at two intersections of Gulshan with the commercial establishments using the public space as their parking lot.

"We have no space for parking of our own," said Md Ershad Ali, manager of Almas Departmental and Almas Superstores at the circle-1. "The shoppers park their vehicles wherever they find space on the road," he said.

Chief Executive Officer of Dhaka City Corporation, M Saifuddin Ahmed said that the responsibility of keeping city streets and footpaths free of illegal parking rests on the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).

The DCC only develops road infrastructure and facility, he said adding that it is the DMP that has to enforce order on the roads for free movement of people.

A number of traffic sergeants said that they are virtually helpless with many influential people routinely violating traffic rules in the area. Besides, the penalty in the event of filing a case against errant drivers and owners is very inadequate.

An errant driver can be fined Tk 200 for illegal parking, which is so negligible, they said.

"When we file cases against a top official or an influential person for illegal parking, they lodge complaints with the higher police officers alleging that we have misbehaved with them. Consequently, we are given a punishment transfer," said an on-duty sergeant.

"It is true that sometimes we face problems in enforcing traffic rules," said Feroz Al Mujahid, deputy commissioner of DMP (Traffic North).

"You just look at the restaurants and private universities located on the Kemal Ataturk Avenue. Hardly any one of them has parking space," he said.

Mujahid said the vehicle users and drivers must have traffic education while the builders and planners must ensure adequate parking space in proportion with the size of the structures. He said DMP is planning to toughen penalty rate for illegal parking.

Although the building owners have to get their construction plan approved by the Rajuk as per existing rules, in many a cases they breach provision of the approved plan.

In case of contravention of a construction plan, Rajuk can cancel not only the plan but also the allotment of the land and go for even demolition of the building, said Chief Engineer of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) Emdadul Islam.

"But we face lack of adequate manpower and logistics to carry out such drives," he said.

A highly placed source at the Rajuk said that the errant builders and owners exercise their political, social and other influences to stop any action against them and go on with their moneymaking activities at the cost of public sufferings.