Tk 100cr to ease traffic congestion
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To address traffic congestion and car-parking issues, the Police Headquarters (PHQ) has taken a project of around Tk 100 crore to build modern, multi-level car parking infrastructure.
Under the project, a 16-storey parking facility has already been constructed at the PHQ premises in the capital. A total of 150 cars can be parked there.
Three other such facilities will be built at Rajarbagh Police Line, Armed Police Battalion (APBn) Headquarters in Uttara, and Special Branch (SB) headquarters in Malibagh.
Shoeb Reaz Alam, additional deputy inspector general (development) of PHQ, disclosed the project details while talking with The Daily Star.
The parking system at PHQ cost around Tk 34 crore, while those in Rajarbagh and APBn will cost around Tk 20 crore each. Meanwhile, the system in the SB office will cost around Tk 25 crore, said Shoeb.
According to officials, the parking systems in Rajarbagh and APBn will have the capacity to park around 90 vehicles each.
During a visit to PHQ yesterday, the car parking system was found operational. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun inaugurated it on December 22.
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Construction work of the system started on October 21, 2021.
While explaining details of the system at PHQ, Shoeb said a driver just needs to put the car in an elevator and exit it.
The lift will automatically take the car to a vacant spot in the 16-storey building, following which, a machine will provide a card to the driver.
For bringing the vehicle out of the system, the driver just needs to put the card inside the machine, explained Shoeb.
Officials said it only takes 1.52 minutes to bring out a car parked on level 16, 1.30 minutes for one parked on level 8, and only 45 seconds for one parked on level two.
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"The place was designated to park only nine cars. But now, we can park around 150 cars in the same space," said Shoeb.
"We have tried to estimate and found that it would cost around Tk 320 crore to buy enough space near PHQ for parking 150 cars. For the system, however, the estimates currently stand at Tk 34 crore and a yearly Tk 5 lakh maintenance fee," he added.
Shoeb also said they aim to make the multi-level system popular so that private and public sectors can take such initiatives to help ease traffic congestion.
As car parking is a major problem in the capital, IGP Mamun Addressing stressed on the necessity of such a system. "If multi-level parking is constructed through public-private initiative, parking cars will be easier and traffic congestion will go down."
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