Irked resident forks out Dh1,000 a month in parking fines
Dh200 is the fine issued in the community for wrong parking
dubai — International City has always been plagued by lack of parking, and now, the insufficient parking spaces in the community has led to one resident regularly accumulating monthly fines of around Dh1,000.
Indian engineer, Madasamy Jayaram, told Khaleej Times he often has to resort to parking at the corner of his building, which results in Dh200 parking fines each time. “This is the plight of most tenants here. I am sometimes forced to park around the corner, as other tenants do, without affecting any traffic. But the police fine us for this.”
Living in Spain Cluster’s building S07 for three years, Jayaram said insufficient parking spaces per number of residents in the area is the real problem.
In a statement to Khaleej Times, International City property developer Nakheel said it is working on alleviating the issue.
“There are currently over 23,000 parking bays in the community, including 2,500 that have been added in the last three years; several hundred more are on the way.”
According to Nakheel’s website, International City hosts around 22,000 residences. But with an average of more than two vehicles per household, residents said the current number of parking bays is simply not enough.
“When I rented the flat here, I was informed the car parking facilities were free. I live in a fourstorey building, which has about 100 apartments in it,” Jayaram said. However, the back side of his building only accommodates about 40 parking spots.
“Some apartment tenants have two cars, which makes parking impossible on most days.” Starting work at 6am and reaching home at 7pm or 8pm most days, he said the parking is “always full”.
“I sometimes wait one hour to find a free space near my building. The weekends are even worse.”
He said he receives about “five fines a month”, because of the lack of parking provided by Nakheel.
When I rented the flat here, I was informed the car parking facilities were free. I live in a fourstorey building, which has about 100 apartments in it. However, the back side of the building only accommodates about 40 parking spots.,” Madasamy Jayaram
Paying rent of Dh3,600 a month, Jayaram said he is willing to pay for a reserved parking space, but has been unsuccessful in his request. He said there is a real, urgen need to create additional parking spaces.
With wide footpaths and many unused communal areas in International City, decreasing the width of the footpaths could be a solution. “Four to five people can walk side by side on the walkways. If we reduce its width, we could usitlise the space for more parking spaces.”
Nakheel said it is continuing to make progress on addressing the parking challenges at International City by “creating additional spaces, exploring parking management options and educating the community on safe, legal parking”.
“In addition, we are freeing-up hundreds of parking spaces by working with Dubai Police and the Dubai Municipality to remove abandoned vehicles. Some 200 were taken away in the last two months, with an estimated 400 more to be removed by the end of the year. Safety and security are paramount at our communities. Residents are urged to park safely and legally at all times.”
kelly@khaleejtimes.com