Saturday, March 27, 2010
Khalid Iqbal

Rawalpindi

The Rawal Town administration has decided to allocate parking spaces along all roads and declared several roads as one-way to facilitate the motorists and visitors.

Space would also be created at the Dalgran Bazaar for parking vehicles. The Rawal Town administration has started work on the plan in consultation with the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and City Traffic Police.

The local administration would provide parking spaces along all roads where parking ticket booths would be installed. The duration of the parking would be for two hours on purchase of a Rs10 ticket. However, one has to pay Rs10 for additional two-hour parking. The authorities have started working on proper lane marking, road marking, no parking signboards, one-way signboards, two-way roads, left-turn and right-turn.

It has also been decided to make DAV College Road, Iqbal Road, China Market Road, Jamia Masjid Road, Sarafa Bazaar Road, Purana Qila Road and some others one-way for smooth flow of traffic. Spaces would also be provided for parking of vehicles along one-way roads.

Rawal Town Administrator Muhammad Arshad Warraich told ‘The News’ that they have finalised the plan to provide parking spaces on both sides of roads. “We have removed all encroachments in the first phase to widen roads and some 8-10 feet space on left sides of all roads would be provided for parking vehicles.” He said that some of the roads are 40 feet wide while many are 50 feet wide. After sparing 8 to 10 feet space for parking on roads, traffic could easily flow on the remaining 30-foot roads, he said.

He said that they have started work on the installation of signboards, lane marking with glitter paint and ticket booths. Motorists would be allowed entry into parking spaces after getting the Rs10 ticket. A motorist could park his car only for two hours and if he wanted to stay for more time then he has to pay extra money, he said. “Dalgaran Bazaar is an ideal point for parking,” he said.

SP City Traffic Police Ishtiaq Shah said that they have visited all areas to implement the parking plan. Two traffic wardens would be deployed on every road to check violations. They would also collect charges of extra time of parking. Six fork-lifters would take rounds of roads to lift wrongly parked vehicles, he said.