



The capital’s civic agency has decided to construct five “park and ride” plazas at different locations of Blue Area, the city’s busiest commercial centre.





The move aims at making Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project more successful, as parking plazas will be established at locations in the close vicinity of five metro bus stations along the Jinnah Avenue.The CDA Board has approved the project.According to the board decision, the lower ground, ground and first floor of the multi-storey parking plazas will be used for commercial purposes to make the venture self-sustainable.Plazas will be constructed along stations including Kachehri Station at F-8/G-8, PIMS Hospital Station at F-8/G-8, North of 7th Avenue Station at F-7/G-7, Stock Exchange Station at F-7/G-7, and south of Parade Ground Station at F-6/G-6.“The move is aimed to enhance ridership of the metro buses, which is on the lower side in Islamabad-section of the project,” said a CDA board member.He said the majority of the working class did not use the facility as they did not find any secure place to park their motorbikes and cars before riding the bus.The general ridership report for June-September 2015 compiled by the Punjab Metro Bus Authority (PMBA) says 100,558 passengers used the service on a routine day. The official said the authorities intend to raise the average ridership to 135,000 passengers a day.The CDA Spokesperson, Ramzan Sajid, said he did not have any knowledge of the current ridership.Talking about the project, he said, the board directed the Planning Wing of the civic body to submit detailed innovative designs of the plazas that were commercially viable and cost effective.Sajid said designing of the plazas was in progress and it had been decided that height of the plazas would not surpass the adjacent or nearest buildings.He said three floors of each plaza would be rented out for commercial purposes in a bid to make the project self-sustainable.The spokesperson said the project would not only facilitate users of the metro bus service but it would also help overcome the parking problem in Blue Area.Sajid, when asked, said that the project cost would be worked out as soon as the design for the plazas was finalised.A senior official of the authority, who declined to be named, said on an average day, some 58,559 passengers get on the busses at the 10 metro bus stations in Rawalpindi while some 41,999 use the 14 stations in Islamabad.“Decision has been taken to bridge the gap between ridership in Rawalpindi and Islamabad,” he added.The decision to construct five new plazas has been taken at a time when the citizens have already been awaiting completion of work on two under-construction parking plazas at Jinnah Super Market, F-7.It has been almost two years now since the CDA announced that it will look into growing parking issues on “a priority basis” in city’s busiest business centres by constructing multi-storey parking plazas.The project was put up on a list of “priority projects” announced by the CDA in 2014, and then in 2015.However, work on these plazas has yet to be completed despite the passage of repeated deadlines.These plazas are under construction at southern and northern sides of the Jinnah Super Market. Both plazas would have a parking facility for 440 cars while the cost of the project is Rs289 million.The CDA spokesperson said construction work on one of the plazas was 100 per cent complete and soon it would be opened to the general public.Published in The Express Tribune, March 2, 2016.