BY BRENDA CH’NG

THE services of parking concessionaire Godell Parking Sdn Bhd will be terminated by the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) following complaints of faulty parking meters and its failure to pay the council its dues.

Confirming this, Petaling Jaya mayor Datuk Mohd Azizi Mohd Zain said the council’s lawyers would send out the termination letter immediately.

“Based on the law, the termination will only take effect 15 days after the letter is received by the concessionaire,” he said after holding a meeting to discuss the matter yesterday after the monthly full board meeting.

MBPJ had been mulling the idea to take back the manage-ment of parking when it discovered that over 50% of its 700 parking machines in the city that catered to about 21,000 parking bays were faulty.

The concessionaire also failed to pay the monthly rental for parking spots to the council.

Areas with faulty machines included SS2, Damansara Uptown, Petaling Jaya Old Town and the Sunwaymas Commercial Centre.

Under a 20-year contract signed in August 1999, the concessio-naire was to pay the city council a monthly rental of RM37.45 for each lot. The contract was supposed to end in August 2019.

Mohd Azizi said the concessionaire violated three items in the contract which were reason enough to terminate the agreement, adding that the amount due to the council was over RM7mil.

Upon termination, Godell must pay up all arrears and hand over all parking machines to MBPJ.

“But if the concessionaire decides to get a court order then we will go to court and fight it out and we will then have to wait for a court decision as to who manages the parking system during the duration of the court case,” said Mohd Azizi.

For now, motorists should carry on paying for parking as usual and MBPJ will avoid issuing summonses at areas with faulty parking machines, he added.

Those fined at areas with faulty machines could get their summonses waived at the MBPJ headquarters, he said.

Once the matter is over, he said MBPJ planned to implement the coupon system temporarily before introducing parking payment via mobile apps in future.

Earlier at the meeting, discussion on dengue cases revealed a drop between January and June compared to last year which was 2,391 cases. This year that figure stood at 1,631.

To date there were four hot spots – PJU9, PJU Flat Pelangi Damansara, PJS 2C Taman Medan and Secion 2.

Bukit Lanjan recorded the highest number of cases with 416 cases followed by Seri Setia (274), Kota Damansara (271), and Taman Medan (270). No deaths were recorded.

Also discussed was the zero use of polystyrene at all Ramadan bazaars in the city.