Islamabad: As per the latest updates, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) has recently launched Islamabad’s first digital car parking system in G-8 Markaz. Moreover, to boost public participation, CDA just announced that the service would be free for the first 10 days. Their major purpose is to provide public awareness about this system in the initial phase and let the people familiarise themselves with the digital payment options.
The CDA chairman stated that by Sep 25, they will activate the digital car parking system in Islamabad’s other areas:
- Parking lot near Centaurus Mall
- F-7 Sector
He further added that in the next phase, they will extend this digital parking system to commercial hubs in Islamabad, including the Blue Area parking plaza. In addition, the digital parking system offers several payment options to the people, such as:
- Credit card
- Debit cards
- QR codes
- Scratch cards
- Cash deposits through machines
Furthermore, the chairman of CDA, Mr. Randhawa, said that the digital parking system will boost the economy of Islamabad. Also, whatever they receive as a result of this initiative, they will use it to upgrade the same market.
Moreover, this initiative is a joint project of Pakistani and Chinese firms and has been awarded a 5-year contract. As per the agreement, CDA will get 75% of the profits, whereas the contractor will get 25%. To ensure easy convenience for the public, parking will remain free for the first 15 minutes, identifying the requirement for quick stops like ATM visits or small purchases.
In 2022, an audit revealed important irregularities that highlighted major mismanagement and loss of revenue. As a result of the audit, the parking fees at significant sites such as Shakarparian, Daman-i-Koh, and Centaurus were not correctly accounted for due to wrong practices in printing parking ticket books, resulting in major revenue losses.
Therefore, the CDA introduced this digital system to eliminate the poor management of the manual collection of fees. With this project, the CDA and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI), aims to recover the loss of PKR 82 million.
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