LAHORE - In view of the mounting parking problems in various busy areas of the city, the City District Government Lahore has decided to build 10 more parking plazas in congested and commercial localities of the city, The Nation has learnt. It has been learnt that the proposed plazas will be constructed phase-wise within a couple of years and the authorities concerned have completed the entire initial process like survey for suitable sites, approval of designs, issuance of pre-qualification notification, tenders, finance, recruitment of staff and other matters in this regard. In this regard, District Officer (DO) Public Facility Chaudhry Abdul Shakoor Asif, while talking to The Nation, said that the authorities concerned had finalised all arrangements for the construction of such parking plazas during a meeting with the District Coordination Officer who also approved the designs of these plazas according to the cite plan. However, short-listing process of bidders and construction companies is underway and would be completed soon, he added. He said that the meeting also discussed various hurdles in the construction process and acquiring land for the proposed sites in various commercial areas, faced by the department. He said that the DCO had also constituted a committee, comprising senior officials from various departments to resolve the issue of land acquisition and other hurdles in this regard. The DO informed that initially, the authorities were facing problem to arrange finance for the construction of these plazas because huge amount was required in this regard. That is why the authorities decided to start only the construction of two parking plazas - at District and Session Courts complex and Anarkali Bazaar, he said, adding that the construction of remaining parking plazas had been deferred for the time being. He said that the CDGL had already constructed two parking plazas in the city including one at Shah Alam Market while the other under construction Liberty Parking Plazas would be completed soon. He said that the completion of the plaza would help resolve parking problem in Liberty Market Gulberg. Chaudhry Abdul Shakoor, however, admitted that the parking problem was aggravating rapidly due to the shortage parking lots in the markets and encroachments, which are also causing traffic messes particularly in the congested areas. Therefore, construction of more parking plazas in these congested and commercial areas is need of the hour because load of vehicles in the city of more than 10 million population is also increasing with the passage of time. Regarding existing parking stands, he said that most of the parking stands were established on roadsides of city markets, bazaars, government offices and other commercial areas, which not only are causing trouble for the pedestrians but also are causing hurdle in smooth traffic flow. He said that to resolve the traffic problem, caused by these parking stands, the department concerned had been directed to identify suitable sites for shifting these parking stands. The CDGL Building Department will conduct a survey in this regard and the report is likely to be submitted to DCO soon, he disclosed.