No more free parking:

Solutions for Colombo city parking soon

By Ranil WIJAYAPALA

As the number of vehicle population increased daily, the number of vehicles entering the Colombo city from the nine entry/exit points is also on the increase on a daily basis. But it has become a point to ponder for the motorists, as the parking of vehicles in the city is becoming less and costly due to the fee for parking being increased daily with the demand for vehicle parking slots gradually increasing, parallel to the increasing number of vehicles.

Many motorists come up with many complaints with regard to parking facilities or the lack of it within the Colombo Municipal Council area as they have to pay for the parking wardens whether they get a convenient parking space or not. At the same time points are also raised to discourage the number of private vehicles entering the city to make the city a more convenient place for the public.

So the vehicle parks in Colombo city has become an issue for many people who routinely drive to the city for work and to attend their daily needs.

When it becomes a hassle for the motorists, for the Colombo Municipal Council which is the sole authority on allocating parking slots for the vehicles, it has become a major issue as the increasing number of vehicles entering the city demands more space for parking.

The city administrators have to consider both the convenience of the pedestrians and also the motorists when solving the issue relating to the vehicle parking within Colombo city as well as discouraging the private vehicle entering the city.

Speaking to the Sunday Observer, the Mayor of Colombo A.J.M. Muzammil said that inadequate parking facilities for the vehicles that are coming in and going out of the city has become a major problem at present. Even the collecting of parking fee has to be outsourced to private companies as the CMC runs short of wardens to be deployed for different parking areas.

"Those days we saw the parking wardens wearing green uniforms and collecting parking fees. As we ran short of wardens we have tried privatising the collection of parking fees. We have given a minimum fee and and ceiling for them when collecting the parking fee. We are quite successful as far as the revenue collection to the Municipal Council is concerned", Muzammil added.

"We call for open tenders among people who have facilities to mobilise the people to collect this vehicle parking fee until we decide what can we do about streamlining the process", he added.

Director Traffic Designs and Road Safety of the Colombo Municipal Council, Nihal Wickramaratne said that two companies MH Construction and TR Enterprises have been given the task after calling for tenders. The wardens from these two private companies used to collect parking fees in Maradana, Borella and Town Hall. In other areas of the city the wardens from the CMC are collecting the parking fee.

According to Wickremaratne, the wardens from the two private firms have to wear orange uniforms with their company name on their uniform, while CMC wardens wear the usual green uniforms.

"We have demarcated those areas and we have asked them to wear different uniforms to distinguish them from the CMC wardens. At the same time we have given them a ceiling of Rs.30 fee for cars and vans and Rs.50 fee for buses. They cannot change that," Wickremaratne added.

There are about 2,500 parking slots all over the Colombo and out of that, 1076 slots have been outsourced to these two companies.

"At present only one company is in operation and the second company will come into operation very soon", he added.

But a common complaint coming from the motorists is that these parking wardens are also charging for the vehicles parked alongside the road despite the areas allocated for them to collect a parking fee.

"We have given them drawings as to where they can collect. The drawings are there and vehicles may park parallel to that area also. I don't know whether they are charging from the vehicle parked parallel to that area also. But that comes under the enforcement part and the authority lies with the Police as it is a traffic offence", Wickremaratne added.

Other than the parking slots administered by the CMC, the people used to park their vehicles in privately owned vehicle parks also paying exorbitant charges. Many motorists are of the opinion that there should be regulatory mechanism to control the parking fee.

But the Colombo Municipal Council is not willing to interfere in the matter of privately owned car parks in the Colombo city.

"The patronage will be depending on demand. For example in high demand areas like Fort if the land owner thinks that Rs. 50 should be charged per hour if the people are willing to pay, that is a demand and supply issue. I don't think that we should get involved in that aspect. Private operators will change the rating on the demand", Wickremaratne added.

Adding to that point Mayor A.J.M. Muzammil said that people should understand that nowhere in the world is parking free.

"This is the problem in Sri Lanka. All these days in most of the places parking has been free and still they think that parking has to be provided by the city at zero cost. In most of the cases many skirmishes have taken place for not paying parking fees not from the ordinary people but from the owners of luxury vehicles", Muzammil added.

Mayor Muzammil has made it mandatory even for the Municipal officials to pay the parking fee whether they are on an official capacity or on private trip.

"If they are on an official duty they have to pay the fee and reimburse from petty cash", he added.

"If we look at the developed countries there is nowhere in the world that you can park your vehicle for free. They have a system to clamp your vehicle when your car is parked in a wrong place and if you don't pay the parking fee. When they clamp your vehicle we have to pay clamping charges", he added.

"Compared to those countries we are still too charitable. We are getting very reasonable parking fees even at a time when people complain about the present day cost of living which is going up", he added.

As a solution for the inadequate vehicle parks the Colombo Municipal Council recently opened the off-the-street vehicle park in Wellawatta.

"There are about 90 slots there and that has also been outsourced for management because we are having a problem of not having adequate people as parking wardens. We have seen that our operations have not been financially very efficient", the Mayor added.

Apart from that, three other off-street parking areas are handled by the CMC while the other off-street parking facilities are owned by the private owners, private operators or the Urban Development Authority.

Mayor Muzammil says that the CMC is considering a plan by the Urban Development Authority to have a multi-storeyed vehicle park near former St John's fish market which is set to be developed into a gold suit by the UDA.

"We have discussed with the Urban Development Authority to have this proposed facility in Pettah near former St. Johns Fish market in 100 perches land belonging to the UDA. So we are now working out with the UDA", he said.

According to the Mayor, the proposed car park plan by the UDA is not commercially viable and the CMC is now discussing with them to make it commercially viable and to implement it as a joint venture with the UDA.

"The problem here is that it is going to cost about Rs.1.2 billion and by allocating parking space only we can't recover the investment. I have shown them some options where we can make it commercially viable", he added. Apart from providing this parking facilities for the motorists, the Mayor is also of the opinion that systems have to be brought to limit the number of vehicles coming into the city.

"That can be done by collecting a toll from the private vehicles entering the city and also introducing the ride sharing system like in Singapore where the motorists carrying three or four passengers in their vehicle don't have to pay a toll. We still can't do that. It is going to come one day, because the way the vehicles are increasing, we have to plan it in the future", he added.

"In certain countries authorities have purposely made parking very expensive as a deterrent for people to come in private vehicles. Therefore they will have to use public vehicles. But here unfortunately there is no good public transport. But, in the years to come things will be changed", he added.

"Once the public transport is improved we also can introduce systems like ride sharing and park and ride facilities. I think park and ride facilities have been established in Ratmalana where they have established a yard to park vehicles and the Ministry of Transport had trials to have a transport mechanism within the city by deploying luxury coaches. Those things have to come", the Mayor added.

"The other thing is that we have to be very careful when it comes to building applications. We are very specific that there should be certain amount of parking facility mandatory for approval. So depending on the size, the usage, there is a formula that they have to reserve so much of parking space for the volume of space that is going to be used", he added.

The UDA and the Municipal Council together will implement this rule when approving any building and highrise which doesn't provide sufficient parking.

Along with these measures, the CMC will also go ahead with its project to improve the city streets, accommodating more parking bays for the convenience of the public. "Next year with World Bank funding we are going ahead with the balance Galle Road and Duplication Road development projects to improve them to the standard what we have done, or better", he added.

There are so many components to the project and the Colombo city and the metropolitan area will benefit under this project.

"The immediate infrastructure development component is about Rs. 2.5 billion for the Duplication Road Galle Road walk-ability improvement, public convenience improvement, two pedestrian overhead bridges at Bambalapitiya and Kollupitiya and some improvements to the beach front to develop beach parks for leisure at Marine Drive and the other one at Crow Island. But the front runners of the project is the Galle Road and Duplication Road walk-ability improvement and public convenience", he added.

The design and construction supervision consultancy contract has already been awarded and they are mobilising within one week's time; and complete the designs in four months time. In another six months construction will commence.

"We also have a target date for completion because Commonwealth Heads of States conference begins in October 2013.

"We have to complete that project by that time", he added".

Director Traffic Designs and Road Safety of the Colombo Municipal Council Nihal Wickramaratne said that people have to bear with the parking wardens as they are not very 'educated' people.

"Many issues come up when the motorists are not paying the parking fee.

"I have seen it and there are a lot of complaints to say that parking wardens abused them and have spoken to them in uncouth language. Actually those issues arise as people are reluctant to pay the parking fee.

"The basic fact we have to remember is don't think that parking is free. At the same time they must understand that people are from different backgrounds and the way you react, they too could react", he added. "The motorists can complain to me if they come up with a parking fracas", he added.