Sharjah: Free midday parking will be discontinued in Sharjah from April 1, Sharjah Municipality announced on Sunday.
Following a decision by the Sharjah Municipal Council, all paid public parking will become paid throughout the day between 8am until 10pm, except on Fridays and public holidays, when the new rule takes effect next month.
Motorists have been asked to follow the rules of paid parking areas to avoid fines.
A Sharjah Municipality official said the decision serves the public’s interest and comes in response to the demand by members of the public to regulate free parking in the middle of the day.
Paid parking is currently in effect across Sharjah city from 10am to 1pm and is free from 1pm to 5pm. Paid parking begins at 5pm to 10pm daily.
Salim Al Suwaidi, Assistant Director-General for Customer Service at Sharjah Municipality, said the new changes will ensure motorists can find parking spaces, noting that the municipality has always been keen on regulating public parking in the emirate.
He added that the municipality has been looking into finding radical solutions to deal with the issue of limited open parking spaces.
Al Suwaidi said that free parking in the middle of the day has led to some motorists abusing the parking by staying in the spaces for days at a time, clogging commercial areas and blocking parking spaces.
Eliminating free parking would also stop people who were misusing the parking spaces and causing traffic obstruction on the roads, he said.
“These negative behaviours make it harder for people to find parking and also affects the cultural and aesthetic appearance of the city. The move was as a result to the growing demand for open parking spaces and the desire of the municipality to provide better services to the public,” Al Suwaidi said.
Municipal officials commenting earlier on the decision said that eliminating free parking would help allow commercial shops and souqs to have open parking spaces near their premises to keep shoppers flowing in and out of their neighbourhoods.
Ultimately, more open parking spaces will be available for shoppers, especially around vital and commercial zones.
Atif Al Zarouni, Director of the Public Parking Department at Sharjah Municipality, said that the municipality offers motorists alternative solutions for paying for their parking fees by sending an SMS to 5566 or subscribing to their seasonal parking cards, which are available in different values and periods of validity. The cards are available for all areas of the city or for specific areas in three-month, six-month and annual validity.
Al Zarooni said that these services are being offered at their service centres in their main building in Al Musalla area, two of the public parking management buildings and the Suburban Municipalities Management in Industrial Area 5.
