DOHA: Lack of space to park vehicles has begun to irk people in Qatar.
Motorists complain that whether they are going to office or on an outing with family, finding a parking space has become a challenge.
High fees charged by companies in the business of paid parking have accentuated the problem, motorists told Al Watan.
Jasim Mohamed Al Dosri, a Qatari citizen, said the problem is worsening every day.
Almost all over the country, especially in markets, it has become headache for motorists and traders to find parking spaces.
Residents said there are limited spaces and vehicles compete for them.
They said the problem can be solved by allocating more parking spaces and urged the government to take immediate steps.
Mohamed Abdul Fattah, an Egyptian living in Qatar for 13 years, said the problem aggravates during weekends and vacations.
Every day people move around looking for spaces to park their vehicles. Sometime the problem leads to altercations between motorists, he said.
Fattah said parking spaces are not enough compared to the number of cars and the increasing population has aggravated the problem.
Mansur Ahmed Al Rashid, a Qatari citizen, said he parks his car far away from his office due to lack of space which makes him walk about two kilometres every working day.
He said traffic police keep on penalising people for parking rule violations despite shortage of parking spaces.
Al Rashid said many ongoing infrastructure projects have also limited parking spaces.
He complained that parking fees in Souq Wakif and City Center are very high. The Consumer Protection Department should intervene to stop the exploitation of consumers , he added.
Jasim Al Marzuki, a Qatari employee, said he had paid fines many times for parking in front of a bank and going to his office. He added that there is a paid parking are but he cannot afford to pay such a high fee for parking his car for eight hours.
Abbas Yahaya said it was unfortunate that companies in the business of paid parking are not allocating spaces for old people, especially in the souq.
Adil Mohamed said the main reason for lack of parking space is the ongoing infrastructure projects and increase in parking fees.
Nawal Al Zoubi said she is not able to use her car because of lack of parking space on the Bank Street and that her husband drops her to office every day. The Peninsula
