The century-old Dhaka University has plenty of problems: shortage of dormitory rooms for students, houses for teachers, poor water supply and waste management. Add to the list the parking woes.

Cars, motorcycles and cycles, parked on the road in front of the Arts Building and around it, are a common scenario. For lack of officially designated spaces many are forced to park their vehicles haphazardly.

"Usually, the university administration does not permit us to park here but exceptions are made in case of special guests and visitors," car driver Abu Hanif, who parked his car in front of Arts Building, said.

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Asked about car parking at Shadow, a corridor beside Arts Building where a space is allotted for parking, Abu Hanif said the space is too small to accommodate the increasing number of vehicles.

Another driver, Saiff Kader said, "It is a suitable space for us to park here. But the university administration does not allow us to stay here for long."

"Sometimes they file complaints too", he added.

Parking lots in DU campus

However, it is to be mentioned that only 15 cars can be parked at the Shadow at a time and it is the only parking zone of the Arts faculty. Besides, Shadow is reserved for teachers' vehicles. And there is no parking zone for students' and guardians' vehicles.

On the other hand, the parking facilities at Business Studies faculty and Social Sciences faculty, Institute of Business Administration, Science faculty are a bit different.

Business faculty has two parking lots- one is for the teachers and another for students. Most of the time, in business faculty, vehicles are seen parked systematically.

Meanwhile, the Social Sciences faculty has its parking lot in its basement but the facilities are not sufficient.

Besides, University's vehicles for carrying students, teachers and the staff can be seen parked on the road on Mall Chattor and on the northern side of Jagannath Hall playground.

Due lack of proper parking facilities, parking anywhere in the campus has become a problem not only seen in the academic parts of the campus but also in dormitories and in the central library too.

Cycles and motorcycles are seen parked at hall corridors and passages as there is no allocated space for parking.

Besides, the front side of libraries is jammed with students' cycles and motorcycles.

Students' sufferings

Anis Hossen, a 2nd-year student of Management Information Systems department, said, "Sometimes it seems that the whole campus is a parking zone as you can see cars, motorcycles and buses are parked everywhere in the campus."

Imon Hasan, a 2nd- year student of Tourism and Hospitality Management department regretted that the campus has become a highway where there is no one to monitor the parking of vehicles.

"I never saw the front side of the Teacher-Student Centre (TSC) area empty. I don't know when it turned into a rickshaw-stand!" he added.

Students cannot move easily on the campus roads due unauthorized parking and excessive movement of vehicles of outsiders, alleged students.

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What authorities concerned says

"We try our best to maintain discipline but we have to be humane too. We must admit that we do not have enough space for parking but we have to park our cars, buses and other vehicles," said Pro-Vice chancellor (Admin) Prof Dr Abdus Samad.

"Besides, outsider's vehicles such as the cars of secretariats are being parked on the campus area. We all know that mass transports should not be allowed in the campus but we have to allow them because this is a national problem." he added.

He also said, "Before making any hard decision, we should think twice about our capacity."

"This problem will take a long time to be solved. We have to cope with this parking problem until the 'Master Plan' is implemented," Prof Samad added.

DU Proctor Prof AKM Golam Rabbani said, "Whenever we see cars in no parking zone, we drive them away",

Shafiqur Rahman, one of the officials of University’s transport management office, said, "Actually, we do not have sufficient space for parking, even though we have a total of 23 vehicles of our own."

Contacted, Estate Manager of Dhaka University, Fatema Binte Mustafa, refused to talk over mobile phone in this regard.

Master Plan to improve parking

Apart from new academic high-rise buildings, the Tk 9,000-crore Master Plan, marking the 100th anniversary of the university, includes developing transport services with parking facilities. It also contains new roads with cycling lanes and walkways.