Punjab govt’s love for Turkish companies wears off after alleged exchequer loss

The employees of the Turkish company managing the parking lots in the metropolitan have been allegedly causing a loss to the government exchequer, forcing the authorities concerned to involve other international firms in the bidding process, Pakistan Today has learnt. Lahore Parking Company (Le-Park) is going to bid the parking areas of metropolitan in a joint venture with other international companies apart from the Turks. The company prefers to hand over the parking contract with the joint venture. Mainly, the companies from Germany, Austria and Saudi Arab are interested for the parking area of Lahore. The companies will manage the working with the local contracts that have the international license. Sources on good authority revealed that the revenue collection of a major site, Liberty Market, dropped suddenly since the Turks took over. The Turkish company may also be replaced, the sources said, adding that the Turks had failed to provide appropriate service at parking stands of the Liberty. “The company does not have enough capacity or size to handle a place like Liberty,” the source said, adding that “The machines at Liberty are all worn out and some of them are not even working. The company is still using the old system to issue parking tickets. The Turkish company is using tickets printed in Turkey, which are in Turkish, instead of using the ones printed by the City District Government Lahore (CDGL). Taking to Pakistan Today the Officials of Le-Park said, “The companies of west are more professional and more competent and the Turks aren’t really doing a good job,” adding that many companies were showing interest in the parking stands of Lahore. “Our options are open and for future ventures we might consider other companies. We will learn from our experiences with the Turkish companies and that will help us improve our service,” they added.