Oman

Soon, no parking meters in Muscat

parking1
 
parking1
Muscat: Muscat Municipality said that it will remove all parking meter devices in the near future and urged motorists to depend entirely on electronic reservation or via mobile SMS.

More areas in the Governorate of Muscat will be included in paid parking zones from March 6.

The areas to be covered included some of the busiest areas commercial areas of the capital such as the parking spaces around the new Al-Khoudh Market, behind Ooredoo Store, Sultan Mosque in Ruwi, Sultan Qaboos Street in Al Khuwair South — the service road opposite commercial buildings.

“The decision was taken in view of the increase in the number of vehicles, and to eliminate the problem of abandoning private vehicles in free parking slots in and around the city, which causes disruption traffic confusion and distortion of the public landscape,” Muscat Municipality said. “There should be a system to find solutions against people who park vehicles for a long period in busy places rather than imposing fines on people who park for short stay or some genuine reasons,” said a road user who complained about lack of adequate parking near the mosque in Ruwi. The parking fees will be charged between 8 am and 1 pm and from 4 pm to 9 pm — except for Fridays, Saturdays and official holidays that are announced by the concerned authorities.

Muscat Municipality urged the users to depend on the mobile parking reservation service. The users can reserve the vehicle parking via SMS by sending the number and code of the vehicle and the number of minutes required (between 30 minutes and a maximum of 300 minutes) to 90091. If the user wants to extend the time, he has to send another message to the number 90091 and follow the same previous steps to inquire about the remaining time.

The beneficiary can type the word ‘time’ to 90091.

The cost of each parking via text message is 110 Bz for 30 minutes.