Cost of parking will double at the end of the month

Parking on the side of the road in many parts of Dubai is about to get a lot more expensive.

New fees and timings that will more than double the cost of parking your car on many streets in Dubai will come into effect on May 28.

In March, the RTA announced that around 30,000 public parking spaces in the city were going to soon cost Dhs4 per hour rather than Dhs2 per hour. They also said that the fees would be charged from 8am to 10pm on working days. These new fees will start at the end of this month.

But remember, with this weekend being a public holiday, you won’t have to pay for parking on Thursday May 5 or Friday May 6 (but you will have to start paying again on Saturday May 7).

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Also, the 1pm to 4pm parking fee ‘siesta break’ no longer exists – and that’s across all car parks in Dubai. So parking in some parts of the city will soon cost a total of Dhs56 per day – whereas, with the four hour break and Dhs2 charge it used to be Dhs20.

The new fee structure is for commercial areas and means that 23 per cent of the RTA side-of-the-street parking spaces (with a focus on business areas) will now cost Dhs2 for 30 minutes, Dhs4 for one hour, Dhs8 for two hours, Dhs12 for three hours and Dhs16 for four hours. These 30,000 spaces will now be called ‘category one’ areas.

Today, the rate is just Dhs2 an hour across the board, which means the cost will double in some parts of the city (in early 2010 the rate was just Dhs1 an hour).

The remaining 73 per cent of the public parking spots will stay at the Dhs2 per hour rate, and be called category two (these will then cost Dhs5 for two hours, Dhs8 for three hours and Dhs11 for four hours).

Exactly which areas are category one (Dhs4 per hour) and which are category two (Dhs2 per hour) is not year clear. But some areas where the fee will go up to Dhs4 an hour include most of Deira, a lot of Bur Dubai, JBR, 308th/Al Badaa Street, Dubai World Trade Centre and Interchange One. Private development areas like Tecom, Dubai Media City and Downtown Dubai are also likely to be in the Dhs4 per hour category.

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Meanwhile, parking lots (as opposed to side-of-the-street parking) will now be at an hourly rate of Dhs3

The price of permits has also gone up: the new rates for seasonal parking permits for parking lots are Dhs700 for three months, Dhs1,300 for six months and Dhs2,500 for one year. The rate for seasonal parking permits for multilevel facilities are Dhs2,000 for three months, Dhs4,000 for six months, Dhs8,000 for one year.

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The tariffs are still not applicable on Friday and public holidays, when parking is free. The cost of parking in Dubai is still relatively cheap compared to other major cities (in London it can cost up to Dhs25 per hour to park in some areas).

Mattar Al Tayer, who is the Director General and Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of Roads and Transport Authority said the move is aimed at finding a solution for the high demand for parking spaces, while also encouraging people to use public transport.