The mayor of Petaling Jaya, Zahri Samingon, says that the PJ city council (MBPJ) supports the Selangor state government’s decision to privatise the city’s parking system, as it is a policy approved by the state executive council. However, several conditions must be met before it can be implemented, he said.
Among these is that the privatisation process must not disrupt the existing parking situation in the city, as FMT reports. Another is that the revenue MBPJ earns from parking must be the same or higher than what it currently receives, he explained.
“There are many terms that we still need to refine further, such as the basis for enforcement delegation, how long it will be delegated, and so on. So there are around three to four more terms that we need to get more details on,” he said.
He added that the council had already met with Menteri Besar Selangor Incorporated (MBI) several times to seek clarification on the plan, and that further discussions will be held with MBI to finalise the remaining details.
As reported previously, Selangor is set to implement a new Smart Intelligent Parking (SIP) system for public parking in areas covered by four local councils, namely the Petaling Jaya city council (MBPJ), Subang Jaya city council (MBSJ), Shah Alam city council (MBSA) and Selayang municipal council (MPS), from August 1.
The SIP will be managed by wholly-owned MBI subsidiary Rantaian Mesra and a private concessionaire. It was said that enforcement will be carried out by the local councils, with Rantaian Mesra acting as the system coordinator, while the private company, which has not been named, will handle day-to-day parking operations.
Following the announcement, the MPs of all four constituencies objected to the proposed system, urging the state government to review the proposal and establish an independent, bi-partisan committee to reassess the scheme. Earlier this month, a couple of groups also openly questioned the move.
In response, Selangor local government and tourism committee chairman Datuk Ng Suee Lim stated that parking management through a concessionaire has been in use in Selangor since 1996, but the new system would improve on things. He said that the local authorities would not bear any operating costs, but are instead expected to receive higher collection.
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Please put more 2 hours parking around city center at KL, Kepong, Selayang, Kuchai, OUG, Kajang etc. Too many “shop owners and staffs” occupied the public carparks for all day long.
Support? They’ve already installed APR’s around the Newtown business area. This was a done deal until people starting making noise. Money/promises/favours have already exchanged hands. This is all smoke and mirrors.
“It was said that enforcement will be carried out by the local councils, with Rantaian Mesra acting as the system coordinator, while the private company, which has not been named, will handle day-to-day parking operations.”
“He said that the local authorities would not bear any operating costs, but are instead expected to receive higher collection.”
1. Enforcement by the local councils = Local authorities would not bear any operating costs. What is this logic?
2. “…expected to receive higher collection” Yes. More money will magically appear for local authorities, even when a third party takes a chunk out of the collection, and a lot of the labor-intensive work (enforcement) is still being done by the local authorities. Who will have to fork out the extra money? Not you.
3. “the private company, which has not been named, will handle day-to-day parking operations.” What is their day-to-day job? Are they going to add entry-exit gantries, which will add more traffic woes? Security (doubt it, no authority in public areas)? Cleanliness (probably still under the usual council’s cleaning services contractors)? Only left are payment processing and maybe customer service, since system integration is under MBI’s Rantaian Mesra. And we are already using that stupid, buggy FlexPay app. How big is the cut with only that kind of work?
Hooray! After waiting for 2 years and A finds out that no one can threaten him, now is the time to let colonies makan makan!