Parking rate increase reasonable — KL mayor

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KUALA LUMPUR: The increase in parking charges in the central business district around the federal capital was fair as it has not been raised for 40 years, says Kuala Lumpur Mayor Datuk Seri Mhd Amin Nordin Abdul Aziz.

He said the implementation had to be carried out as the issue of traffic congestion was worsening with more private cars entering the city centre exceeding the number of parking space provided by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL).

“RM0.80 to RM2.00 is not that big, by right it should be RM5.00, already we are among the cheapest based on our survey, if compared to other countries our rate is similar to Bangladesh and Myanmar while the rest is higher than us,” he said when met by reporters here yesterday.

He said about 3.5 million private vehicles enter the city centre daily but only 45,000 parking lots are available.

“Most of the people use the parking from morning to evening, thus depriving others from using the facility…the two-hour limit is to prevent such people from causing such congestion,” he said.

Asked on public reaction on the timing of the system’s implementation when the public transport system was still in the process of being improved, Mhd Amin said:

“We cannot control it as according to policy, public transport is under SPAD (Land Public Transport Commission) while the control of parking is under local authorities which is a small micro thing and we wish to tackle it.

“The decision was made by the Federal Territories Minister (Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor) and I have reported the matter to him and he is now meeting members of Parliament in Kuala Lumpur,” he said. — Bernama

On Monday, DBKL raised parking charges up to 150 per cent in the central business district including Bukit Bintang, Bukit Damansara, Sri Hartamas, Desa Hartamas, Solaris Mont Kiara, Taman Tun Dr Ismail and Bangsar. — Bernama