ISLAMABAD: The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has launched Islamabad’s first-ever digital car parking project at G-8 Markaz.
As per newspaper report, CDA Chairman Mohammad Ali Randhawa, accompanied by board members, visited G-8 Markaz to launch the project.
Member Technology and Digitisation Nauman Khalid briefed the chairman on the project. Initially, free parking is being offered to raise public awareness of the initiative.
Media reports indicate that the CDA will not charge parking fees for approximately 10 days. A digital parking system is also being installed in the parking lot adjacent to Centaurs Mall and in F-7, and will become operational on September 25.
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At a later stage, the system will be introduced in other commercial areas, including the under-construction Blue Area parking plaza.
The member of technology said people can make digital payments through seven options, including credit card, debit card, QR code, scratch card, and cash via machines.
Report Says, the CDA chairman said the revenue obtained from digital parking will be used for the uplift of the same market. He said that digital parking will improve business and economy in the city.
System also being installed in parking lot adjacent to Centaurs Mall and in F-7, says official
An official of the CDA said that a joint venture of Pakistani and Chinese companies had won the five-year contract. He said under an agreement, CDA will get 75pc revenue while the contractor will get 25pc, adding all cash will be deposited directly in CDA accounts and on monthly basis CDA will return the share of contractor.
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The official said there will be no fee for car parking for 15 minutes as many people park their cars for small works such as using ATM machines, purchasing some medicines and grocery items etc.
The Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA), which is part of MCI, is the main department to deal with parking issues. The CDA’s IT wing helped in digitising the parking lots.
The DMA has itself been collecting fees amid allegations of corrupt practices.
“For the last several years, fees at our main parking lots, including the one adjacent to Centaurus and G-9 terminal, are being collected by the directorate,” an official of the DMA said. Gradually, these sites will be brought under the digital parking system.
The official stressed the need for a proper inquiry into the collections and cash deposited with the DMA.
In 2022, during a special audit, massive irregularities were found in the self-collection system and an inquiry was recommended to fix responsibility. Subsequently, an inquiry committee was constituted, but it failed to fix responsibility.
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The audit of several projects was conducted by a special CDA team headed by the then-audit officer, Rao Shahid Pervez, which unearthed massive irregularities and corruption.
The team had been tasked with carrying out a special audit into the collection of fees at Shakarparian and Daman-i-Koh car parking and parking lot adjacent to Centaurs in the last two years. The audit report had revealed that officials got parking ticket books for Shakarparian and Daman-i-Koh sites printed from a local market.
The auditors said due to the market-printed books, it was difficult for them to check the daily collection of parking fees and its remittance to the CDA and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).
The inquiry report had stated that a previous contractor of Centaurus car parking had to pay Rs30 million but not a single notice was issued to him by the DMA office for recovery of the amount.
“The DMA managed the sites of car parking without any standard operating procedure. There is no record maintained for the printing of ticket books, which basically caused less recovery,” it said.
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“The audit report noted a lack of transparency in the recovery of parking fees, resulting in a loss of Rs82.34 million for the authority,” the report stated.
The DMA took possession of the G-9 bus stand on September 8, 2021, and the Centaurus parking space on June 24, 2021. The report stated that 19 kiosks at the G-9 bus stand and two at the Centaurus parking area were rented out to the public without approval from the competent authority.
