The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has approved the construction of a new parking plaza near Centaurus Mall in Blue Area to address the city’s worsening parking challenges. The move comes as Islamabad’s first-ever parking plaza, also located in Blue Area, continues to face delays despite being scheduled for completion in March 2023.
Construction of the Blue Area plaza began in March 2022 and its grey structure has since been completed. However, the facility has yet to be made operational, with paint, flooring, and finishing works still pending. CDA officials said lifts have already been installed and the plaza is expected to be functional within the next month.
Recognizing the growing parking crisis in commercial and densely populated areas, the CDA board recently cleared plans for the second plaza near Centaurus Mall. Officials said the civic body is also developing parking sites near overcrowded educational institutions to ease traffic congestion.
The Centaurus project is part of a broader plan for six parking plazas across Islamabad. Other proposed sites include I-8 Markaz, G-9 Markaz, F-8, and F-10.
Officials noted that abandoned commercial plots in various Markazes could also be repurposed to provide out-of-the-box parking solutions, underscoring the urgency of tackling the capital’s chronic space shortage.
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Instead of using billions rupees worth land and construction costs to create exclusive parking plazas the CDA should revise it’s commercial buildings and highrise plazas bye laws to bind businesses to design and provide for multilayered underground parking floors separate for business owners and general public. Same is true for educational institutions on the Shahrah Iqbal for Behria and Air universities to create underground parkings inside their allotted land by pulling the security parameter deeper inside the allotted sectors. PAF hospital is yet another parking nightmare on Shahrah Iqbal.
If you clear the illegally occupied spaces in Islamabad taken over by second hand car dealers, car garages and similar others, you will not need these plazas. However, if this is absolutely necessary, hand over the job to honest and professional constructors. If these plazas ‘sit down’ like some roads in the capital, imagine the extent of human loss and damage to the parked vehicles.
Every plaza in must have a car parking in it’s basement or on top floor. No one plaza map should not be passed without having at least two floors for parking and suitable arrangements of fire fighting.