Dubai: The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has confirmed to Gulf News that it has extended the grace period for parking in Dubai’s Al Khail Gate community until June 30, Saturday.
Consequently, following the two-week leniency, the paid parking system kicks in and violators will be fined only from July 1, the agency has confirmed to Gulf News on Tuesday
The parking system was originally set to be activated on June 17, Sunday.
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On Monday, after giving one day’s exemption during Eid holidays for the activation of paid parking system, the authority activated the orange-coloured meters at the residential community off Al Khail Road in Al Quoz.
Huge rush
Some tenants, who went to apply for their parking permits, said they were told by the RTA staff that the authority would issue fines only from July 1 due to the huge rush of residents applying for permits at the two designated customer happiness centres of RTA, as first reported by Gulf News.
“They have also put up a notice saying activation of Al Khail Gate [paid parking] will begin from July 1, thought what they meant is about fines,” said a resident who also provided a photo of the notice.
In a statement issued to Gulf News on Tuesday, RTA confirmed that the parking machines in the community were already activated.
Parking machines activated
“However, fines will not be issued until July 1, 2018,” the authority said.
RTA said the authority practices this leniency period of two weeks whenever a new parking zone is introduced and will help residents or visitors in the area become aware of the implementation of the parking regulations applicable.
The authority said it was approached by Dubai Properties, the developer of the community, to regulate the current parking slots available in Al Khail Gate, due to high parking occupancy rate, which was leading to insufficient parking spaces for residents and visitors.
“The step is in line with RTA’s strategy to ensure optimal utilization of resources and stepping up the level of service on offer across Dubai.”
Why parking system was implemented
In response to the needs of the developer, the RTA said it has developed the vehicle parking regulation mechanism to achieve the following benefits:
• Increase vehicle turnover in parking area, which is witnessing high occupancy rates thus eliminating the phenomenon of negligent parking by vehicles
• Solution against the issue of lack of parking spaces especially at night after the return of the residents
• Encourage people to use public transport available in the area
• Prevent the exploitation of parking spaces for long durations by non-residents in the area.
• As per the agreement, the authority said tenants of two bedroom apartments can avail only a single permit while those in three bedroom apartments can get two parking permits.
• "Any additional permit to be issued is subject to the approval and NOC (No Objection Certificate) from Dubai Properties Asset Management based on their evaluation criteria,” it added.
• Gulf News had earlier reported that many families with two cars, who had earlier planned to leave out of the community, have decided to stay back after they received NOC for a second car permit.
• This allowed tenants to cut down the annual expenses for parking two cars from Dh14,180 to Dh5,000.
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