Looking for a parking space? Multi-storey car parks at your service

Hard-pressed building owners in Dhaka have found a new way to mint money from their properties – they rent out the floors to "tenants" wanting guaranteed parking spaces – and renting out business is gaining popularity in the big cities.  

Take for instance Sahabul Islam Sabu of Parking Koi INC Ltd, who is now looking for another building in Dhaka's Natun Bazaar area after a successful business in Badda.

As many as 500 cars are parked on an hourly basis at the Badda multi-storeyed building adjacent to Gulshan Link Road per day. Sabu says his monthly income from it is around Tk10 lakh.

"Previously there was a readymade garment factory at the building. I planned to turn it into a shopping mall after the contract with the factory ended. But I finally opted for the rent-out business in 2016, which now has turned out to be more profitable than the factory deal," Sabu told The Business Standard.

He said commercial parking space business only requires a trade licence from the city corporation and approval from the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA). In addition, turning a building into a commercial car park needs multi-power elevators to lift vehicles to the parking floors and a wide entry-exit to the building.

Like Badda's Parking Koi INC Ltd, currently, at least ten multi-storeyed buildings in Dhaka are being used as commercial parking lots.

Besides, there are 1,000 businessmen in the capital who rent out spaces to vehicles on a monthly basis after renting out the ground and first floors. There is an app too that rents spaces from building owners and then offers those parking lots on an hourly, daily and monthly basis.

The multi-storeyed parking lots are mostly located in commercial, shopping and educational institution hubs where people need their vehicles to wait for at least a couple of hours. The lots have smart and digital management for charging clients.

Mahmudul Hasan, manager of the commercial parking lot at the 37-storeyed City Centre in Dhaka's banking hub in Motijheel, said 500 cars can be parked on their seven floors at a time altogether. As many as 1,500 cars are parked there per day on average.

He said the commercial parking lot is the largest of its kind in Bangladesh that has four multipower lifts and a smart time count and charging system.    

Mahmudul Hasan said most of his clients are bankers. The minimum parking time is six hours at Tk60 for cars and micro-buses.

Besides the City Centre, there is another commercial parking space in the Motijheel area just opposite to Bima Bhaban.

Ali Ahsan Jewel, manager of Sunmoon Car Parking in Gulshan-1, said the company charges Tk80 for every six hours.   

"As soon as a vehicle enters the parking lot, it gets listed automatically by computer and gets a receipt. The driver pays Tk80 and collects it. If the vehicle is parked for more than six hours, the automatic count will charge it upon exit," Jewel explains the system.      

Shopping malls also offer commercial parking

Some 28 shopping malls in Dhaka have car parking facilities for shoppers and others too, according to the Bangladesh Shop Owners Association.   

Mohammad Shahadat, parking lot manager at Jamuna Future Park Shopping Mall, said around 2,500 cars can be parked at their facility at a time, while they accommodate 4,000 vehicles per day on average.      

He said alongside shoppers, professionals of nearby offices also use the parking lot as Jamuna Future Park authorities earn around Tk1 crore from the parking lot per month.

There is an app too

In 2018, parkingkoi.com launched the first mobile based app in the country for car parking anywhere in Bangladesh. Using the app, car owners can park their vehicles in an area on an hourly, daily and monthly basis.

Osman Mohammed Tonu, founder manager of the app parkingkoi, told TBS their mission is to solve parking problems as well as traffic congestion since haphazard parking is responsible for 30% of the traffic congestion in the capital.  

The app, he said, also provides hosts with an alternative source of income.  

According to the app operators, already about 5,000 spaces across the country – mostly underground and ground floors of residential buildings – have come under the parking app.

They rent to rent out  

Some businessmen in Dhaka are renting out the underground and ground floors of residential buildings for commercial parking.     

Ataur Rahman is one such businessman who runs a parking lot adjacent to Gulshan Westin Hotel. His main business, however, is selling furniture at DNCC market in Gulshan-2.          

Ataur's two-floor car lot can accommodate 40 vehicles at a time, while the monthly deal is at Tk8,000.

Ataur Rahman said parking business is going on at about 100 such rented buildings in Gulshan 1 and 2.

"There are more than 1,000 businessmen in the capital who are running parking businesses on the ground floors and underground after renting those from the building owners," he said.

Country's largest parking lot awaiting inauguration

Hatirjheel Multi-Storey Car Parking Building, a 12-storeyed commercial parking lot in Dhaka's Nabisco-Gulshan Link Road, is awaiting inauguration.   

Waheed Construction Limited of Karim Group built the infrastructure of the Public Works Department.

The builder said 3,000 cars can be parked at the lot on an hourly basis at a time. The commercial parking, the largest in terms of capacity, will be inaugurated soon.

Blaming haphazard parking on the road for frequent traffic congestion in Dhaka, Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh said the city corporation has designated some spots for car parks, but those are not enough.   

"Traffic woes will drop significantly if private sector entrepreneurs come forward with smart parking solutions. The city corporation will provide all-out support to the businesses," Taposh added.