DUBAI // Frustrated business owners say the parking situation in Dubai Media City is prompting them to seek office space elsewhere.
Drivers say they circle for up to 40 minutes for one of about 3,000 spaces available to tens of thousands of workers.
"We have more than 15 vehicles and we are willing to pay for parking, but there are just not enough spaces," said Sherjan Ponnal, 32, who works for an international oil company.
"We have more than 10 clients in Media City that we have to attend to every day. If the authorities can provide the spaces, we will pay."
Dexter Pitchen, 26, an entrepreneur who comes to the free zone almost every day, said: "Parking was always an issue here but I now have to show up two hours in advance so that I can be sure to find parking and get to my meetings on time."
The shortage was exacerbated when Tecom - the governing body for Media City, Knowledge Village and Internet City - asked the Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to impose paid parking across all public spaces.
The RTA began to introduce its system in April, installing parking meters at all parking spaces and cordoning off two large sand lots outside the Arjaan hotel and opposite Concord Tower.
Drivers say opening the sand lots would immediately solve the problem.
Managers of parking areas have since doubled their fees and are trying to charge up to Dh1,000 a month for a reserved space.
For Duminda Indunil and his company, enough is enough. "We are already in the process of finding new offices in Business Bay or Tecom, where parking is plentiful," said Mr Indunil, 36, a sales executive from Sri Lanka.
He is one of 42 staff members working for a printing company in Media City.
"Parking has always been bad in Media City but now it's actually costing us business," said Mr Indunil.
"We are taking more than an hour every day now trying to find a parking spot, and sometimes we can't make a meeting or a client trying to visit us can't find a spot and gets fed up, and meetings get cancelled.
"The parking problem is by far the main reason for us moving out of Media City."
Mr Pitchen said the problem also affected his visitors. "When they planned these parking spaces nobody was thinking about the clients these businesses will have," he said.
Mr Indunil said his company could not find a solution for the problem, and authorities did not seem interested in solving it.
Tecom could not be reached for comment but the RTA said it was aware of the problem.
"We've received many complaints about the parking situation there, and we have informed the authorities in Tecom," said Adel Al Marzooqi, director of parking at the RTA.
"We have told Tecom they need to distribute more parking permits. At first they were only providing them to their clients."
He said there were 10,000 parking spaces in all three business parks and the RTA was studying ways to improve the situation.
"In the next few weeks we will be opening new parking areas," Mr Al Marzooqi said. "There are two companies there completing this work."
He said the two closed sand lots belonged to private investors.
"If we see that the owners have no current plans to build on them, we may reopen them for parking but in an organised manner," Mr Al Marzooqi said.
He said the authority's main priority was public safety, which was lacking before the RTA was called in.
"We also want to promote the use of public transport and that is going well with students in Knowledge Village," Mr Al Marzooqi said.
