Thursday, Dec 26, 2013
Abu Dhabi: Tareq Taisser has a car, but he uses taxis in the evenings due to a lack of parking space around his apartment building in a residential area in Mussaffah.
“I reach home from work after 6pm and it takes at least 40 minutes to find a parking space. If I take the car to go shopping with my family, there is no way to find parking again; so I take taxis,” Taisser, 37, a Jordanian public relations officer, told Gulf News.
Taisser is among the thousands of residents in sectors 10, 11 and 12 in Mussaffah residential area on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi city, whose life is miserable due to the parking problem for the past six months.
Taisser, who has been staying in the area for 14 years, said the parking problem was aggravated with paid parking lots being introduced in residential areas.
“Many parking spaces around the buildings in all four sectors [9-12] were closed down simultaneously. If the closure was in a phased manner, it would not have caused a crisis,” Mohammad Fayas,an Indian businessman living in sector 11, said.
The residents in sector 9, however, said the construction in their area was almost completed last week, giving a reprieve to their parking problems.
The constructions in sectors 10-12 still continue.
Mawaqif, a division of the Department of Transport, which manages and regulates parking services in Abu Dhabi, is undertaking the paid parking work. A comment from Mawaqif was not available at the time of going to press.
“Although the issue started about six months ago [when the construction began] it was further aggravated about two months ago when many unpaved parking areas were also closed ,” Ahmad Sulaiman, 22, a university student from Pakistan, said. A resident of 14 years in the area, Sulaiman said he received fines of Dh200 twice for wrong parking. “There was no way to find a proper parking. Now to avoid fines, I even search parking more than one kilometre away from my building, still it takes at least 40 minutes!”
Alam Khan, 40, an Indian engineer living in sector 10, said he parks his four-wheel drive on pavements, risking a fine. Saloon cars do not have even such an option.
Khan, a long-term resident, said parking problems have been there since 2008, but the construction work has aggravated the problem.
By Binsal Abdul Kader Staff Reporter
Gulf News 2013. All rights reserved.
