End free parking, end of problem?
Try looking for a parking spot at a government office here and chances are, you will find yourself circling the building a dozen times to no avail.



You will also need to navigate streets clogged with cars parked on both sides of a one-way lane.



Inevitably, with your blood pressure at dangerous levels, you will be forced to park illegally at least half a kilometre away from your destination.



Perbadanan Putrajaya, the city's local council, is at its wits end trying to solve the problem.



"It is a problem that has no end in sight," said the director of city services Datuk Abd Ghani Ahmad.



A quick check on the vehicles parked illegally showed that most have their wipers up, indicating that the vehicles would be parked there for quite a while. Almost half of them have windscreen stickers indicating that they are owned by government staff.



The problem stems from the fact that most of the civil servants drive to work instead of taking the buses they are supposed to. As a result, most, if not all, of the parking bays in and outside the government complexes, including visitors' bays, are filled.



"They know that they are supposed to use the bus but they don't, and we don't know why," said Ghani.



The parking and congestion problems have pushed the local council to promote the usage of public transport including launching a "Jom Naik Bas" campaign a few months ago.



"What the workers in the government offices are supposed to do is park their cars at the Park-n-Ride facilities and take the buses to their offices," said Ghani.



There is a glimmer of hope though. Nadi Putra, the bus company which operates in Putrajaya, has been reporting a steady increase in its number of passengers, which has grown from 216,810 in January to 240,880 last month.



The company is adding 80 more buses to its fleet of 70 to cope with the extra demand should the civil servants be persuaded to stop driving and use the bus instead.



The free parking in Putrajaya is one more reason why many people in Putrajaya drive. However, this will come to a stop on Dec 1.



Designated areas outside Parcels B, C, D, and E have been earmarked to be special parking lots. These will be managed under two parking systems -- closed parking and pay-and-display.



The closed parking bays will cost RM1 each for an hour's use, and the pay-and-display parking bays will cost 50 sen each an hour.



Ghani hoped this would discourage civil servants from parking outside the government complex, but this is doubtful in view of the low parking fees charged.



Many efforts have been made by the local council, including the issuance of compounds to errant motorists since Oct 1, to clear the streets of parked cars. It remains to be seen whether the end of free parking in Putrajaya will resolve the problem, once and for all.