Friday, Sep 16, 2011
Gulf News
Sharjah Parking fees in Al Majaz and in a number of business areas in Sharjah have been increased by 100 per cent since the beginning of this week and Sharjah Municipality said fees in all designated parking areas will become Dh2 per hour by the end of this year.
Engineer Sultan Al Mualla, Director-General of Sharjah Municipality, told Gulf News that parking fees will be unified in the city in a couple of months.
The municipality used to charge Dh2 per hour in commercial areas and Dh1 in residential areas.
Residents complained of not being notified in advance which caused them some inconvenience.
Phases
However, Al Mualla explained that the controlled parking project which was initially implemented in January 2005 set Dh2 per hour for all parking lots in the city “but we decided to implement the fees in phases as per the decision of the Sharjah Municipal Council in 2005, some areas will start with Dh1 to be increased gradually to Dh2”.
Al Mualla said the recent increase in fees in some areas were implemented after the municipality noticed a growth in incidents of misuse of parking facilities in areas where the charge is Dh1 per hour.
Some used to book the parking of their cars for 10 hours continuously. “Such misuse of parking facilities has created a serious problem for other motorists in those areas who would not find place to park their cars for a fraction of an hour,” he said.
Al Mualla said by this increase parking cost in Sharjah will come in line with parking fees in other emirates.
It will hopefully cover the costs of the maintaining the parking meter and the manpower operating the system,” he said.
Training
“Additionally, we are training inspectors to become more responsible and treat motorists in the correct manner and with tolerance,” Al Mualla added
Al Mualla urged motorists not to misuse parking lots and to allow others to avail themselves to the benefit of controlled parking facilities.
By Aghaddir Ali?Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2011. All rights reserved.
