DNCC to inroduce on-street parking arrangment

Staff Reporter :
Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) is going to introduce on-street parking arrangement on the thoroughfares in its administrative areas in exchange of high fees in a bid to discourage unauthorized parking.
Sources said that the cost of on-street parking might be Tk50 for the first two hours and for the next one hour it will be Tk50 and the fee will be Tk125 for three hours.
Citing examples of big cities in other countries, DNCC said there is on-street parking arrangement in other countries and such system can be introduced here on the streets of Dhaka to streamline haphazard parking and to reduce the traffic congestion.
The DNCC claimed that this system will help reduce the nagging traffic jam for hours.
In the initial stage, the system will be introduced in Gulshan and Banani where DNCC will make space for the parking lot.
“The purpose of the on-street parking is to discourage haphazard parking on the streets,” DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam told the media.
The city planners, however, deem such initiatives as suicidal because they said such arrangement will rather encourage people to bring out more vehicles on the streets and add to traffic congestion.
General Secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners Dr Adil Mahmud said, “In the developed and modern countries, it has 20-25 percent roads but here we have only 7-8 percent. If such parking is introduced, it will increase traffic jam.”
“There is no such scope to introduce on the streets of the capital. People will pay the charge willingly. Then the roads will be narrowed due to huge pressure of vehicles,” he observed.