Media

Muscat Municipality announced recently the activation of a metered parking system that will be implemented at the Sahwa parking lots upcoming September.

The attempt was decided to meet the growing density of population at that area and to combat random parking as many drivers leave their vehicles there for long periods. Furthermore, many vehicles have been parked in away that obstruct traffic movements and some left unclean prone to fires and rodents.

Muscat Municipality did take previous measures to prevent random parking of vehicles at the Sahwa parking lots. The previous regulation has forbidden prolonged parking outside the permitted times when visiting the parks. The Municipality put alerting stickers on vehicles noting them the regulation, giving owners a deadline. However such measures haven`t guaranteed a complete solution to the issue.

There is no doubt that leaving vehicles neglected for months distorts the public appearance of the city, as vehicles could host rodents and become prone to accumulation of dust, in addition to the obstruction they cause to traffic movements and depriving others visiting the Sahwa parks.

Article 8 of administrative decision No. 151/2016 on the regulation of the use of public parking lots in Muscat prohibits owners of vehicles from committing any acts contrary to, such as:
1.    Parking in public lots without paying the fees due.
2.    Exceeding the time period allowed for each paid fee.
3.    Any action that would disrupt or distort the use of meters, disrupt public parking lots or disrupt traffic movement.
4.    Parking on the yellow lines or driving over the curbs or sidewalks to park on aereas not designated for such purpose.
5.    Parking in the areas allocated for government departments, diplomatic and consular authorities and Gulf, Arab and international organizations.
6.    Parking the vehicle on the tracks and corridors, and on the pavements leading to the parking, and obstructing the flow of access and exit the parking.
7.    Parking in the areas allocated for people with special needs or in the areas allocated for loading and downloading.

8.    Parking the vehicle in the parking assigned to Imams of mosques, construction sites or banks.

Parking would be applied in the morning period only, visitors of the parks will can still park for free at evening time. The park goers can pay through many ways, either by cash payment in the meters, SMS`s, Baladiyyti app or even Muscat Municipality website.