Dubai: Dubai Silicon Oasis (DSO), a freezone area located off Dubai-Al Ain road, will be covered by the Roads and Transport Authority’s (RTA) paid parking system, Gulf News can confirm.
Though the system has not gone live as yet, the RTA has installed parking sign boards. The payment meters are set to be installed soon.
The signboards indicate that the paid parking hours will be similar to other zones in the city, starting at 8am and ending at 10pm.
However, like all freezone areas, the seasonal parking cards won’t be valid here.
A comment from the RTA was not available.
According to the RTA rules, the annual, bi-annual and quarterly parking cards are not valid in areas like Tecom, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, Knowledge Village, Deira Fish Market and Gold Souq.
The DSO is an urban community spanning 7.2 square kilometres with mixed-use development like office towers, residential apartments and villas as well as industrial and educational outlets.
According to the DSO, an estimated population of 162,000 work or live in the community and some of those community members didn’t seem happy about the plans to introduce paid parking.
“I drive to the DSO daily for work and I have to park my car on the roadside the whole day. I don’t understand why the seasonal parking cards are not acceptable, How do the authorities expect me to pay every hour for the parking,” said Mohammad Ata, an accountant, who works for a software firm.
He added that there are several others like him who don’t have parking spaces available in their office buildings.
Several residents also claimed that the paid parking in the area is not justified as there is no congestion or a parking problem.
“We don’t have a parking problem here, especially in the residential side of the neighbourhood. Most of the parking spaces are vacant so the paid parking system is not justified in the area,” Syed Zuhair, a Pakistani resident.
“There is no shortage of parking in DSO and people who come to work have to rely on roadside parking spaces because there are not enough spaces in all buildings. It is shocking that the seasonal parking cards won’t be valid,” Sam Fernandes, who works in DSO.
Mohammad Abu Talib, a resident of DSO, was also surprised that seasonal parking cards won’t be valid.
“It is not surprising that more areas are being covered in the paid parking system but what is shocking is that the authorities won’t accept seasonal parking cards. I have two cars and luckily there are some vacant spaces in my building so I could park in an additional parking space, but that is not the case in all buildings,” said Abu Talib.
