Housing Development Corporation (HDC) will be taking several measures to address the parking issues in the reclaimed suburb, Hulhumale’.
Hulhumale’s physical development masterplan was drawn up with consideration for social, economic and environmental impacts. The reclaimed island is managed by HDC.
Managing Director of HDC, Suhail Ahmed said several steps are being taken to address parking issues in Hulhumale’, and that a paper outlining the standards required for the solution have been presented to the government.
“We cannot allocate a parking space for each flat. Therefore, the residents of the island need a specific space alloted for parking, be it from the street or from another parking zone. A large part of the areas near flats have already been designated for parking,” said Suhail.
Suhail further noted that although homeowners in Hulhumale’ show authorities that they have garages for parking their vehicles, the garages are usually utilized for other purposes.
“These residents take garage permits, and later convert their garages into living rooms, [etc]. Therefore, this [process] is difficult to implement. The car ends up on street parking once again,” said Suhail, noting that a meeting was recently held at the President’s Office to discuss the matter.
“The biggest complaint we now receive is that we do not issue parking permits. But if we do begin to freely issue these permits, there is high chance that Hulhumale’ will end up like Male’. Even now, there are several vehicles that cannot be driven on the roads,” said Suhail.
A system under which parking spaces will be available for hire is being developed in collaboration with the government, said Suhail. While the system will lease parking slots to users for a limited term, applicants will have the option to extended the term, said Suhail. While parking slots were leased for lifetime use in the past, the new system would allow for the slots to become free in the case a car is sold or is being used in another island, he added.
