Nowhere to park

Nowhere to park

Faizul Khan Tanim seeks solutions to the crisis of parking space in the city and finds a company that has the simple answer to the problem

Crises in the city

With the advent of real estate development in Dhaka, construction of commercial and residential apartment buildings are on the rise and to a point where these buildings – plush shopping malls, office buildings, condominiums and apartments in the city – have resulted in illegal road occupation by vehicles on the main roads, alleys and by lanes.

Between any main road or intersection, be it Mirpur, Satmasjid or Dhanmondi, Gulshan or Kemal Ataturk avenue, as a matter of fact any and every long stretch of roads in the city, the traffic jam at any time of the day is horrible because of these buildings constructed without optimum parking for occupants and their guests.

And though the supermarkets like Bashundhara Shopping Mall on Panthapath offers a parking space of 1,200 vehicles, here too the people are habituated and love to park them on the street so that they can come out of the market and drive away fast without having to go down the parking space, pay for the parking ticket and look for the driver.

Officials at the traffic department believe that the fines for traffic and parking violations are too meagre to raise fear for the violators.

Some of the residents complain that even if they go down to the parking basement in this mall, there is absolutely no space. And the senior citizens say that this is due to the lack of the three major senses within us – civic, common and traffic.

Positive developments

While passing the Tejgaon Road between Gulshan-1 and Tejgaon Industrial Area, a surprising advertisement saying 380 car-parking in a building, caught most commuters’ attention.

In reality, there are very few real estate companies who are different and are more client-oriented, fetching important and essential amenities for the occupants, and one such company is Shanta Properties Ltd. (SPL), since 2006. The vision of this company is to set standards in the country, said the strategic planning and marketing manager Md Towhidur Rahman.

“During the construction of SPL Western Tower, we kept in mind the immense parking crisis and traffic congestion due to that which is why for every 1200 to 1500 square feet; we have one parking space allocated.

And not only that, we have 50 to 60 guest parking for our occupants so that not a single guest vehicle has to be parked outside the premise and occupy road space”, Rahman added.

Upon visiting the construction, this reporter saw one of the biggest three-layer basement parking in the city with proper ventilation system so that the exhaust fumes of vehicles don’t pollute and raise the temperature of the area.

Moreover, there is a double lane internal driveway all around the building and punch card system for easy entry and exit of vehicles. Each basement has a comfortable seating area for the drivers with fresh room and entertainment facility.

Rahman continued saying that SPL makes sure that this parking facility is a common feature in not just Western Tower, but for all their projects and he referred to one of their biggest, almost-complete, projects in the city – a mammoth condominium with 150 flats of different sizes called SPL Digonto in the city's Paribagh area.

The senior deputy general manager of construction of SPL Md Mamunur Rashid from the construction site of Digonto showed us that there are 262 spots, including 28 guest car parking in three basements for the occupants of the 150 flats. Entry and exit of vehicles are made easy by low elevated ramps and massive internal driveways.

“We have installed the electro-mechanical units like the power generators, not in the parking area to avoid exhaust fumes and noise polluting the basement area”, Rashid added.

Asking about any other advantages or amenities that SPL provide, Rahman said we are in a very fast-growing business and clients of today will only opt for the very best.

“All the electro-mechanical equipments, installations and building safety consultancy of any SPL projects are done by the world-renowned company Lincolne Scott, Australia, all the elevators are big enough to accommodate stretchers in case of emergency patients, central geyser system and 24-hour hot water provision, modern fire-fighting system with fire exit and staircase, central water purification system which will fetch drinking water to all the taps in the building, extended verandas and extra gymnasium, spa, swimming pool, roof garden, walk ways, children and adults play/recreation area and convention centre for the condominiums.”

http://www.theindependentdigital.com/?opt=view&page=25&date=2011-03-28