By Naeemah Munirah Abdullah
GOMBAK, 5 March 2015: Limited parking space in campus has been a long going issue revolving around both students and staffs. Most complaints came from students about having their cars clamped and getting summons for illegal parking.
Traffic supervisor at the Office of Security Management, Shamsudin Mohd Zain, confirmed the matter as the biggest problem the university was facing, ever since he began his career as a trainer here in 1996.
œBack then in year 2000, the rule disallowing first-year students to bring their cars to campus was enforced in order to solve the problem. Later on more students owned cars resulting in areas at the Mahallah being crowded that led to the same prohibition imposed on second-year students in 2003,” he said.
He further explained the by-stages prohibition, where third-year students were forbidden to bring their cars starting in 2010, up until now.
In response to students allegation that the security management started to do inspection and fined the students because the university’s administration was facing financial problems, Shamsudin stated that they operate on a daily basis from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm around the Kulliyah and the administrative buildings to ensure the traffic flow and to overcome traffic problems. He said the security was doing their job, so it is not fair to make such an allegation.
As for the students residential area, the security personnel would go and do their checking rounds after being informed by the Mahallah management, especially when there are complaints lodged.
One limitation faced by the security is the lack of manpower. There are only seven officers handling traffic, which sometimes disabled them to be thorough in looking after the whole campus. Thus, this might lead to overlooking some offences that students claimed to be unfair in issuing out summons, according to Shamsudin.
œStaffs and students are both given ample time to renew their car stickers. Every year, the expiry date is in August. We would not start the sticker inspection immediately until September. Like the recent inspection we did was in early February the following year, which was months after the expiration date, said Shamsudin, adding that for the staffs, their renewal period for the car stickers is every two years.
Among the common traffic offences for students are parking in prohibited areas: the yellow box, the OKU (persons with disabilities) path, the box reserved for TNB lorry in Mahallah, the path in front of the fire hydrant, and boxes reserved for staffs.
As for the cars which were clamped, it involved those whose drivers were unknown or because they were not registered with the university. If the cars involved in an offence were found with student or staff stickers, the authority would directly leave a written summon without clamping them.
Concerning the common offences by motorcyclists, it was when they parked their motorbikes in the building, for instance in front of the lift, thereby causing obstruction.
The parking lots between departments are very close to one another, limiting parking space even just for staffs. An example given by the traffic supervisor was relating to CELPAD, where there are about 300 staffs and the parking boxes provided are only 54.
In very rare cases, what saved the situation is the very few lecturers who come to campus by motorcycle or public transportation.
Another saving factor is the difference in teaching session, where those teaching in the morning may have gone back and emptied the parking space by the time lecturers for the evening session come.
Commenting on the ways to solve this matter, Shamsudin admitted that issuing of compounds would not easily settle the problem.
œWhat we need is more parking spaces. We have been proposing the areas that we believe are suitable to be modified for parking, such as paving the way near the river and the grassy area along the road. Certain areas may need some of the trees to be cut down, but we can still maintain the greenery of our campus, he added.
Other than that, a proposal which is still in discussion stage is on the multi-layered parking facility.
The plan would hopefully ease the traffic woes in campus. As it would consume a huge cost to build such a facility, sponsorship from the Endowment Fund may be needed and it is left for the university’s top management to decide, Shamsudin said. ***
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