Qatar scraps plan for metered parking areas

Manama: Qatar’s municipality and urban planning ministry has cancelled a plan to introduce metered parking space.

The plan was initially drawn to help address crowded parking areas in the Qatari capital Doha where the number of people and vehicles has been steadily increasing.

Those behind the plan said that charging drivers in exchange for the right to park their vehicle for a limited amount of time would help ease congestions and referred to other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, such as Bahrain and the UAE, that resorted to metered parking areas to tackle the issue.

The ministry said that it would look into other options, local Arabic daily Al Sharq reported on Tuesday. The number of vehicles on Qatar’s roads in 2010 was around 755,000, up from 688,000 in 2009.