The Bhutanese Leading the way.
To reduce the increased levels of traffic congestion and unorganized parking on city streets, the Thimphu Thromde will implement an integrated parking system project for the exclusive area of Thimphu City through a public-private partnership (“PPP”) concession model using private finance.
There are approximately 900 on-street surface parking spaces in core city area of Thimphu. The Thimphu Thromde has currently outsourced the management of public parking in the city, granting right to collect fare and pay a pre-determined obligatory fee to the thromde.
The project manager, Thimphu District Municipality (TDM), Gov¬inda Sharma, said project to build the multi-level car parks (MLCP) has been awarded to the KCR Private Ltd. The construction of MLCP has not started as yet, but the drawing of the project is com¬plete. At the moment, KCR Private Ltd. manages the existing parking in core areas, like Norzin Lam.
Govinda Sharma said there might be a provision for revision of parking fee on MLCP. “The thromde is resurfacing the roads in the core areas and after resur-facing work is completed, the KCR Private Ltd. should put the infor¬mation board regarding how much parking fee should be paid for an hour and so,” he said.
The existing operator charges a parking fee of Nu 10 per 30 minutes for all off-street parking facility and on-street parking area, except on Norzin Lam, where a parking fee of Nu 15 per 30 minutes is applicable.
Upon completion of the con-struction of MLCP, the thromde plans to remove the parking spaces from Norzin Lam’s main shopping area, turning it into a pedestrian zone.
Official from the KRC Private Ltd. said that they will start the work as soon as possible when the National Environment Commission (NEC) issues the clearance certificate.
The MLCP sites are located at each extremity of Norzin Lam, which is the main road in the city. The off-street parking facility and on-street parking area are also strategically located throughout the exclusive area, leading to high volume of parking demand and ideal geographic spread.
The TDM grants KCR Private Ltd. the right to use off-street park¬ing facility and on-street parking area on public land within the exclusive area. KCR Private Ltd. will also be responsible for MLCP and all other publicly-owned off-street parking facility and on-street park¬ing area within the exclusive area.
Apart from three existing pri-vately owned and operated paying parking facilities, KCR Private Ltd. will be given exclusivity to provide parking services and collect park¬ing fees in the exclusive area. No other operator will be issued a con-tract for a competing parking facility in the exclusive area during the term of the concession period.
KCR Private Ltd. can utilize up to 15% of the total built-up area on each of the two MLCP sites for the purpose of commercial establish-ments.
As of April 2013, there are about 36,075 vehicles in Thimphu, out of which 29,567 are personal vehicles and 3,585 are taxis.
The two site identified for the construction of MLCP are one near the Zangthoperli shopping complex with a capacity of at least 350 parking space in an area of ap-proximately 5,400 square meters. The other is to be built opposite the Thimphu Thromde, which will have a parking capacity of at least 200 vehicles on an area of approximately 3,000 square meters.
The project provides an ade-quate concession period of 15 years from the start of operations, which is long enough to allow for an acceptable return on investments.
The cost of building the two MLCP is estimated at Nu 26 mn and the project is expected to be complete within two years from the date of commencement.
